[•D4C6 A HISTORIC 

AND PRESENT DAY GUIDE 

TO 

OLD DEERFIELD 



EMMA LEWIS COLEMAN 




BOSTON 

1907 




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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



A HISTORIC 
AND PRESENT DAY GUIDE 

TO 

OLD DEERFIELD 



EMMA LEWIS COLEMAN 



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BOSTON 

1907 






This book is sold for the benefit of the Deerfield Academy 
and Dickinson High School 



Price in paper, 50 cents ; in cloth, $ i.oo 



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Copyright, 1907, by 

EMMA LEWIS COLEMAN 

BOSTON 



The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 



TO C. ALICE BAKER 

PUPIL AND TEACHER OF THE OLD ACADEMY 
FRIEND AND HELPER OF THE NEW 



ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

The writer realizes her great indebtedness — and 
hopes it may prove also the indebtedness of Deerfield 
Academy — to Mr, George Sheldon. 

It would have been tiresome for writer and reader 
to have made this acknowledgment on every page, but 
if he had not written his admirable " History of Deer- 
field," this book would not have been written. 

She is indebted also to Miss Baker for constant 
help, and for that portion of the Historic Sketch, from 
the settlement of the town to the massacre. To Mrs, 
Champney and Miss Isabel WilHams for the use of 
their poems, and to Dr, Hale for his ballad. To Mrs, 
Arthur Ball for the list of flowers, and to Miss 
Margaret Miller for that of birds. 

E. L. C. 

May 31, 1907. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE. 

Where it is — How to get there — Local Information . i 

Trolley Trips 2 

Automobile Routes 3 

Drives 8 

General Description 11 

Historic Sketch 15 

Stories of the Homesteads 29 

Indian Bridge — The Bars 65 

Meeting-houses and Ministers 72 

Schools 83 

Memorial Hall 87 

The Village Room 90 

The Old Bur}'ing Ground 91 

Industries 96 

Directory of Industries 103 

Trees of the Street — Wild Flowers of the Neighborhood 

— Birds 104 

Some Books about Deerficld 113 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

[The picture of Dr. Willard is from a crayon portrait by Mrs. Richard Hildreth; 
that of Mr. Fuller from a negative madeby .\llen & Rowell. The other illustrations, 
with two exceptions, are from negatives made by E. L. C] 

Page 

The Village Street Frontispiece " 

Mt. Toby, from our Mountain Road 9 

The Frozen River, near the place 

where the Indians crossed - 22 ' 

The Common 27 ' 

Broughton's Pond and East IMountain ... . 29 ^ 

House built by Joseph Stebbins .... -33 

The Williams-Dickinson House ..... 37 

"The Little Brown House on the 

Albany Road " • . 42 - 

Grave of Mehuman Hinsdell 44 • 

Frary House 52 • 

The Willard House 57' 

George Fuller . 71 ' 

The First Church 72- 

" One Large Silver Cann " made by 

Paul Revere • 75^' 

Rev. Samuel Willard, D.D 78 - 

George Sheldon 87 - 

Old Burying-ground 91 v 

Graves of Rev. John Williams and his 

Wife 92- 

House and Studio (Elizabeth W. and 

J. Wells Champney) 97 ' 

Elm in the South Meadows 105 



WHERE IT IS, HOW TO GET THERE, AND 
LOCAL INFORMATION 

The town of Deerfield is in the Connecticut Valley. 
The village of "Old Deerfield," which this book 
describes, is in the valley of the Deerfield River, in its 
lower course. It is three miles south of Greenfield, 
the shire town of Franklin County, and thirty-three 
miles north of Springfield. 

It may be reached from Boston by the Fitchburg 
division of the Boston & Maine Railway to Green- 
field (105 m.), thence by the Connecticut & Passumpsic 
division (3 m.), or by hourly trolleys, which, alas! carry 
one directly through the village street. 

Or, one may go via the Boston & Albany to Spring- 
field (99 m.), and northward by the C. & P. (^^ m.). 

There are two routes from New York: that by the 
New York, New Haven & Hartford to Springfield 
(136 m.), thence northward by the Connecticut & 
Passumpsic (33 m.), and by the New Haven & North- 
ampton, a division of the N. Y., N. H., & H. (166 m.). 
By the latter route, day coaches only are provided. 

A pretty approach from the south is by rail to North- 
ampton, thence by trolley (18J m., j\ hours). 

There is not an attractive hotel in the village; Mr. 
James H. Briggs, the proprietor of the Pocumtuck 
House — which is midway of the street — purposes 
to build one opposite the Common. Nor is there a 



LOCAL INFORMATION 

boarding-house, but rooms may be hired at several 
houses, and the hotel supplies meals. 

There are three outward and four inward mails daily. 

Telegraph office is at the Connecticut & Passumpsic 
station. Long-distance telephone at the hotel and 
store. 

Deerfield has the service of Adams Express, B. Z. 
Stebbins, Jr., Agent, at the station of the Northamp- 
ton & New Haven R. R.; and of the American Ex- 
press, Henry S. Childs, Agent, at the upper station. 

Memorial Hall is open from nine to twelve, and from 
one to five o'clock on week days. 

The Dickinson Library (free) is open on Monday 
and Wednesday, from four to five, and Saturday, from 
six to nine o'clock. The reading-room, from four to 
six o'clock on school days, and all day during vaca- 
tions. 

The libraries of Memorial Hall, the Village Room, 
and the "Minister's hbrary," may also be used under 
certain conditions. 

For Deerfield Industries (see p. 103). 

TROLLEY TRIPS 

By trolley — the Connecticut Valley Street Railway 
Co. — one can go northward to Greenfield (3 m. 15 
min.), connecting at Cheapside with Turner's Falls and 
Miller's Falls; southward to South Deerfield (4! m.); 
Hatfield (12} m.), and Northampton (i8| m., ij hr.), 
25 cts. 

At Northampton, one may connect with Hadley 
(4 m., 15 min.), and Amherst (8 m., 30 min.), 10 cts. 
2 



LOCAL INFORMATION 

Or, leaving the trolley near Sugar Loaf in South 
Deerfield, and walking across the Suspension Bridge 
to Sunderland (f m.), where one can take the trolley for 
Amherst (7 m., 35 min.), 12 cts. 

A pleasant excursion is to go by railway to Holyoke 
(48 min.), thence by trolley to South Hadley (4 m., 
25 min.), to the Notch (7 m., 45 min.), to Amherst 
(12 m., I hr., 10 min.), 16 cts. The shorter route to 
Deerfield is via Sunderland. If one chooses the 
longer, by way of Northampton, three colleges arc 
passed: Mt. Holyoke, Amherst and Smith. 



AUTOMOBILE ROUTES 

{From the Interstate Automobile Guide, by the Courtesy 0} F. S. 
Blanchard b' Co.) 

Route I. 

Deerfield to Boston (via Fitchburg), ioi\ m. 

Follow trolley, crossing Deerfield River, turn to left, follow- 
ing trolley under railway, up hill to Main St. 

Greenfield, 3 m. 

Main St. to High St., turn to left and follow to fork in road 

(at cemetery), bear to right at top of hill, and down hill, 

across Suspension Bridge; turn to left, up hill, and at top 

of hill turn to right, into . . . Turner's Falls, 6^ m. 

Continue straight ahead, across Main St., up hill, and 

follow main highway to Miller's Falls, ii^ m. 

Good macadam and dirt road rolling 

Cross railway, down hill across bridge to paper mill, turn 
to left, up hill, and at top of hill turn to right and con- 
tinue straight ahead through Farley to . . Irving, 17 m. 
Road fair, dirt and sand, hilly 

3 



LOCAL INFORMATION 

Continue via main road, east, following line of railway, 
through Wendell and West Orange, to . Orange, 22 m. 

Follow trolley east to Athol, 2-jh m. 

Continue with trolley through Main St., bearing left into 
Templeton Road, straight ahead, past Athol Reservoir, 
via Powers' Mills (trolley all the way), through 

Templeton, 375 m. 
To East Templeton, 40 m. 

Bear right at forks in centre and follow Main St. east, 
north of Kendall Pond; bear left into Broadway, over 
Bent Pond, to South Gardiner, 43 m. 

Follow trolley to Westminster, 46^ m. 

Leave trolley, follow State road, bearing left and north 
past Round Meadow Pond Reservoir, crossing railway at 
station; bear right, over Snow hill, into Westminster St. 
to Waite's corner, and follow trolley through 

West Fitchburg, 50J m. 

Into Main St. to Depot Sq Fitchburg, 53J m. 

Roads unijormly good, dirt and macadam, rolling and somewhat 
hilly 

From Depot Sq. via Water St., follow trolley to 

Leominster, 58I m. 
Turn to left into Central St., thence into Lancaster St., 
and follow trolley over Ballard Hill to 

North Lancaster, 64J m. 
Roads good, but hilly 

About I mile beyond Lancaster Hotel, bear to left and 

follow direct road to Bolton, 67^ m. 

Good dirt road, rolling 

Bear to right after leaving Bolton and continue on direct 

road to Stow, 71 § m. 

Good dirt road, rolling 

Follow trolley to foot of hill, Main St. . . Maynard, 74J m. 

4 



LOCAL iNFORMATIOPvT 

From here continue east, crossing river and railway, and 
follow main highway (Great Boston Road) via North 
Sudbury (crossing Sudbury River), Silver Hill and Ken- 
dal Green, into and through Main St. . Waltham, 93^ m. 

Follow trolley via Main St. direct to . . Watertown, 97I m. 
Macadam road, level 

Continue via North Beacon St. and Commonwealth Ave. 
via Allston into Beacon St. to State House, 

Boston, loi^ m. 
Roads fine macadam from Wallhafu 

Route II 

To Springfield (via Northampton) 

Follow trolley to railway (where trolley leaves highway), 
pass under tracks, bear to right and straight ahead to 
bridge over railway, then follow trolley to 

South Deerlield, 5 m.^ 
Good dirt road, rolling 

Follow trolley, bearing to right at fork beyond church and 
school, through Hatfield (12-J m.), crossing railway at 
Laurel Park Station, to King St., to Post Office, 

Northampton, 17 m. 
Macadam and dirt road, rolling 

From Court House, follow direct down Pleasant St. to 
and across Mill River Bridge, thence with trolley all the 
way via the river road, to . . . Mt. Tom Station, 19I m. 

and Smith's Ferry Station, 21J m. 

to Holyoke 27 m. 

Then leave trolley where it turns to left at Lincoln St., 
Holyoke Highlands (unless it is desired to go to centre 
of city), and proceed straight ahead, via Northampton 

' A shorter route is by the Swamp road, leaving the trolley at 
Hotel Lathrop, and following the telegraph poles. 

5 



LOCAL INFORMATION 

St., through Elmwood district, past two cemeteries, cross- 
ing under railway at Ingleside Station; thence follow 
main highway, river road, to West Springfield, and cross 
North End Bridge into Main St., to City Hall, Spring- 
field 



Roads uniformly good, macadam and dirt 



37 m. 



Route III 

To Amherst (via Northampton), 25 m. 

By route II to Northampton, 17 m. 

From King St. turn and follow trolley through North St., 
crossing under railway, to Day St., to Bridge St., cross- 
ing Connecticut River Bridge, and on via Hadley Post 

Ofiice to Amherst, 25 m. 

Macadam and dirt road, rolling 

Route IV 

To Amherst (via Sunderland), 15^ m. 

By Route II to South Deerfield, 5 m. 

Leave trolley at Sugar Loaf Mt., following highway round 
its base, cross Suspension Bridge to Main St., 

Sunderland, 6J m. 
Turn to right, following trolley through North Amherst 

to Amherst, 15^ m. 

Macadam and dirt road, rolling 

Route V 

To Brattleboro, Vt. (River Road), 25^ m. 

By route I to Main St Greenfield, 3 m. 

Main St. to High St., turn to left and follow to fork (ij 

miles out) ; at cemetery turn to right , and cross Suspension 

Bridge; bear to left through town (Turner's Falls) and 

cross river again, then bear to right, straight ahead to 

6 



LOCAL INFORMATION 

river, ferry crossing, into Northfield Farms; turn left, and 
continue straight north to ... . Northfield, 14 m. 
Good macadam and dirt road, rolling 

Follow Main St. to Mill St., cross river, bear to right and 
along river road, crossing two railways and following 
line of railway, west of river through South Vernon, Vt. 
(16 m.) and Vernon (20 m.) to . Brattleboro, Vt., 25I m. 
Fair dirt road, rolling 

Route VI 

To Brattleboro (via Bernardston), 24 m. 
To Main St., Greenfield. Turn north through Federal 
St., follow trolley to where it turns into Silver St., and 
continue straight ahead, bearing to right at fork of road 
(4 miles out), pass cemetery on right, and i J m. beyond, 
crossing railway on left, bear to right, and straight on to 

Bernardston, 10 m. 
Macadam and dirt road, rolling 

Turn to right through Church St., and on crossing railway 
just beyond fork in road (2 miles out), left road, bearing 
to left after crossing, and crossing again to left at Mount 
Hermon Station; then bear to right by Sawyer's Pond, 
and follow along line of railway, north, direct to 

Brattleboro, Vt., 24 m. 
Fair dirt road, rolling 

Route VII 

To North Adams, 40 m. 

To Greenfield 3 ni. 

Main St. west, crossing railway and brook, and continue 
straight ahead to crossing road (East Shclbume and 

7 



LOCAL INFORMATION 

Coleraine road); turn to left down hill, cross bridge; 
take first turn to right, straight ahead to 

Shelburne Centre, 8 m. 
Ordinary dirt road and hilly 

Continue on main highway, bearing to right and north, east 

of river to Shelburne Falls, 12 m. 

Roads fair, dirt, hilly 

Turn to left, cross iron bridge, turn to right and follow 
right side of river through East Charlemont, and all the 

way to Charlemont, 19 m. 

Good road, macadam and dirt, rolling 

Continue on main highway, following river straight ahead 

to Zoar, 24 m. 

Cross river just beyond and follow river road to 

Hoosac Tunnel, 30 m. 
Fair dirt road, some sand, hilly 

Bear to left and straight ahead through Florida (30 m.), 
following telephone poles over mountain, down through 
Eclipse Dam, turn left into Main St., 

North Adams, 40 m.* 
Road mostly fair, dirt, some pieces poor, winding; 15 to 20 % grades 
up and down; highest elevation about 2200 }t. Drivers should 
exercise care. 

DRIVES 

The drives about Deerficld are unusually beautiful, 
though latterly some are injured by the felling of the 
mountain forests. By taking the trolley to Greenfield 
or South Deerfield, where good horses may be hired, 
one can get farther afield. It is impossible to give de- 

' North Adams can be reached by another route, avoiding the 
mountain. 

8 



LOCAL INFORMATION 

tailed descriptions, but the following suggestions may 

^'south^ Meadows. -There are no fairer ways than 
these roads which cross the meadows in every direc- 

'' Wisdom Roads. -By way of Stillwater Suspension 
Bridge, or, if the river is low, by a ford at the foot of the 
Albany road. One may have a charming drive by 
taking the lower and returning by the upper road 
where there is a fine outlook of the Holyoke range, Mt. 
Tom etc. Beware of the railway crossmg. One can 
go to' Greenfield and Shelburne by these roads. 

To Conway. -By two pretty routes. (See the Field 

^'to Ashfield. -By Conway, or as suggested above, 
via trolley to South Deerfield. ^ , ,u 

Mountain Roads I. - The Great River road to the 
Connecticut, and back by East Deerfield. A good 
Sunday drive because of the stone crusher; 

Or, to the right along the river's bank and home by 
the other mountain road ; 

Or, across Rice's Ferry (wire) to Montague. Sum- 
mon the ferryman by horn. ,• , ^„ 

About quarter of a mile from the Connecticut on 
the Great River road, is a clay hill, where have been 
found some of the so-called claystones. In this bed they 
are small and more or less spherical. On the east bank 
of the river, a short distance south of the ferry, are found 
"Large irregular concretions which are bevelled on both 
sides to a sharp edge." (See ''Concretions from the 
Champlain Clays of the Connecticut Valley, by J. M. 
Arms Sheldon.) 



LOCAL INFORMATION 

II. The Pine Nook, or higher mountain road, gives 
one a pretty view of Mt. Toby and the Connecticut 
Valley. By following the river's bank, one may return 
by the Hillside (Turnip Yard) road; 

Or, cross Whitmore's Ferry to Sunderland, and driv- 
ing southward to the village get a beautiful fortress-hke 
view of Sugar Loaf; back by the Suspension Bridge. 

To Turner's Falls, by way of the covered bridge, to 
Montague City. Ask about trains, for the railway is 
above the roadway of the bridge. Note the disused 
canal now full of forget-me-nots. 

At Turner's Falls are factories — cutlery, paper, etc. 
Pass by a well-protected foot-bridge to the verge of the 
Falls. Cross the bridge above the Falls to Gill. (See 
the monument to Captain Turner, returning to Green- 
field by Factory Village — Gill Hollow.) 

To Greenfield by Hope Street, and back by Rocky 
Mountain. 

From Greenfield, there are a great many dehghtful 
drives. On the Shelbume and Coleraine sides, the 
Green River road, and towards Bernardston and 
Leyden. On the edge of Leyden is the Eunice Wil- 
Hams monument. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION 

The Pocumtuck of two hundred years ago embraced 
about a hundred and thirty-seven square miles, and 
had for its eastern boundary twenty-five miles of the 
Connecticut River. 

From this territory have been set off the towns of 
Greenfield — including Gill — in 1753, Conway in 
1767, and Shelburne in 1768. 

To-day Deerfield contains about thirty-six square 
miles; with a population of 21 11. 

Greenfield touches it on the north. The Connecti- 
cut River separates it from Montague and Sunder- 
land. Whately makes its southern boundary, and 
Conway and Shelburne he west of it. 

Rising from the narrow but beautiful strip of meadow 
which extends along the bank of the Connecticut, are 
two ranges of highland from one to two miles wide. 
The easterly range of trap (called Rocky Mountain 
and extending to Turner's Falls) disappears under 
the western range at Turnip Yard. At the north, the 
slope descends to the gorge at Cheapside, where the 
Deerfield, on its way to the "Great River," has cut a 
passage through the hills about two hundred and fifty 
feet deep. Not far above, on the Greenfield side, are 
Sachem's Head and Poet's Seat, from which points one 
may get extensive views of both valleys. 

The westerly range of red sandstone is called 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION 

Pocumtuck. It springs from the plain to a height of 
seven hundred and nine feet in the beautiful cone of 
"Wequamps, called by the white man, Sugar Loaf," 
in 1672. From its summit one gets an exquisite view 
of the valley. 

Beyond Beaver Neck is North Sugar Loaf, and 
further north, east of the "Street," is its highest point 
(822 feet), Pocumtuck Rock, or "The Rock," dear to 
all Deerfield people. 

Northward the range gradually falls off until it dis- 
appears under the trap. 

Westward from this long range spreads the valley 
on which the Dedham Grant was laid out, and in which 
are now the "Old Street," and the small villages of 
Wapping, the Mill and the Bars, and South Deerfield 
which was first called Bloody Brook. Beyond the 
Deerfield Valley, rise the rounded foot-hills of the 
Hoosac range, the highest in our town being Arthur's 
Seat (927 feet). It is near the Shelbume border, easy of 
access, and the prospect is beautiful, extending to Grey- 
lock. The ranges on either side of the Deerfield Valley 
are known locally as East and West Mountain. 

The section west of the river, now West Deerfield, 
used to be called Wisdom, and surely "Her ways are 
ways of pleasantness." Possibly the name was given 
because several Wise famihes hved here. At the 
foot of East Mountain, on a plateau about twenty feet 
above the meadows, which surround it on three sides, 
was laid out the "Town Plott" of 1671, and here, 
very much as the "Artist" then planned it, is the 
"Street" of to-day. It is one mile long. From it 
Academy Lane (named from the old academy, now 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION 

Memorial Hall) leads eastward past the Orthodox 
Church, Town Hall, and Memorial Hall to the station 
of the Connecticut and Passumpsic Railway, and 
passing under the railway arch to the roads which 
cross East Mountain to "Great River" and "Pine 
Nook." 

To the west, the Albany road leads to the old bury- 
ing-ground, to the meadows, by a ford to Wisdom and 
to Albany, if one should choose that route. 

From the north end of the street is a charming out- 
look across the meadows, which stretch two miles 
northward. Like an island in their midst, rises Pine 
Hill to a height of forty feet. It contains about forty 
acres, and is doubtless a remnant of the original 
plain, which, according to Agassiz, at no very remote 
geological period was the bed of the Connecticut 
River. There are four or five small ponds in the 
meadows. 

The hill on which is Greenfield, and the higher hills 
of Shelbume, Colerainc, Leyden, and Bcrnardston, 
may be seen to the north. 

From the other end of the street, one looks across 
the South Meadows and the windings of the Deerfield 
River, to the villages of Wapping and the Mill, and 
to Pocumtuck Rock, and Sugar Loaf, Mt. Tom, and the 
Hoosac Hills. 

Deerfield River rises on the eastern slope of the 
Green Mountains in Vermont, entering Massachusetts 
near the mouth of Hoosac Tunnel, and taking a south- 
easterly course. The towns of Rowe, Charlemont, 
and Shelbume are on its left bank; Monroe, Florida, 
Buckland, and Conway on its right. For two miles 

13 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION 

it flows between Conway and Deerfield. From the 
falls at Shelbume the river descends rapidly, wearing 
for itself a rocky bed from two to four hundred feet 
deep. The gorge is narrow and its sides precipitous. 

Green River, which rises in Southern Vermont, 
crosses Leyden and Greenfield, and enters the Deerfield 
in the North Meadows. 

Mill River comes from the Conway Hills. The first 
mill was built beside it in 1693. The river runs 
southerly and enters the Connecticut in Hatfield. 



14 



HISTORIC SKETCH 

Mary Talbot, granddaughter of the Earl of Shrews- 
bury, and wife of Sir William Armeyne, was not only 
of distinguished rank, but of remarkable piety, learn- 
ing, and accomplishments. She was also a philan- 
thropist. 

With the Lady Mary Armeyne the history of Deer- 
field is intimately connected ; since the ;^2o per annum, 
given by her for missionary purposes in New England, 
was granted by our General Court to John Eliot, for 
his Christian Indian settlement at Natick. 

Unfortunately the land chosen for EHot's settlement 
proved to belong to Dedham, and for twelve years 
there was dispute between Dedham and Natick as to 
the ownership of the tract. Finally, in 1663, the Gen- 
eral Court "judged it meet to grant Dedham eight 
thousand acres of land in any place where it cann be 
found free from former grants." Several horseback 
journeys having been made by men of Dedham into 
the interior wilderness of Massachusetts, the eight 
thousand acres selected included what is now Deer- 
field, Greenfield, and Gill. 

In 1666, John Pyncheon, of Springfield, was employed 
to buy the title from the Pocumtuck Indians, its native 
owners. The deed, with two later ones, may be seen 
in Memorial Hall. 

Samuel Hinsdell, son of Robert, of Dedham, had 

r5 



HISTORIC SKETCH 

broken ground in Pocumtuck as early as 1669, and 
was soon followed by Samson Frary. For years the 
affairs of Pocumtuck were controlled by Dcdham. 

In May, 1673, Hinsdcll, Frary and others deter- 
mined to set up an independent town, and in answer 
to their petition, the General Court granted them an 
addition to the original eight thousand acres, "so that 
the whole be to the content of seven miles square, pro- 
vided that within three years an able and orthodox 
minister be settled among them." 

In 1673 the Reverend Samuel Mather, having been 
graduated from Harvard College in 167 1, became the 
first minister of Pocumtuck. 

In September, 1674, Moses Crafts, son of Griffith, of 
Roxbury, was "licensed to keep an ordinary in Pocum- 
tuck and sell wines and strong waters for one year, pro- 
vided he keep good order in his house." 

In November of the same year, the name Deerfield, 
applied to the settlement at Pocumtuck, first appears 
in an official paper. Up to this date, as we have seen, 
it was known as Pocumtuck, from the Indian tribe 
that had settled on both sides of the Deerfield and 
Connecticut rivers, near their confluence. 

The principal stronghold of this tribe was on a hill, 
still known as Fort Hill, to the northeast of the Common 
in Deerfield Street, crowned by a group of Lom- 
bardy poplars. Here, in 1664, the Pocumtucks were 
nearly annihilated by a body of Mohawks, whom they 
had grossly insulted. 

A futile attempt to dispossess of their arms a body 
of Pocumtuck and stranger Indians (probably some of 
Philip's band), after the affair at Brookfield, was fol- 
16 



HISTORIC SKETCH 

lowed, September i, 1675, by an attack on Dccrfield, 
which at that time contained about one hundred and 
twenty-five inhabitants in houses scattered far apart. 
The news of this reached Hadley on a Fast day, when 
the people were assembled in the meeting-house, caus- 
ing such consternation that, according to Cotton 
Mather, "They were driven from the holy service 
... by a most sudden and violent alarm J^ This 
statement, repeated and exaggerated by successive 
historians, gave rise to the legend of a furious attack 
on Hadley that day, and the salvation of the town by 
the sudden appearance and valor of Goffe the Regi- 
cide. A second attack on Deerfield was made on 
Sunday morning, September 1 2th while the people and 
the soldiers that had been sent to defend them were 
in meeting. 

These frequent attacks on the frontier, making 
necessary the assembling of troops in the valley, and 
equally so the collecting of a food supply, Major 
Pyncheon ordered the wheat which he had stacked 
in Deerfield, threshed and put in bags, — and teams 
and drivers impressed to transport it to headquarters 
at Hadley. Captain Lathrop was sent up with his 
company, as escort to the train. In the early morning 
of September 18, 1675, the line of ox-carts set out for 
Hadley escorted by Lathrop and his "Choice company 
of young men the very flower of the County of Essex." 
For two miles down through the South Meadows and 
"The Bars," to Long Hill and the woods beyond, they 
marched, till they reached "A swampy thicket through 
which crept sluggishly a nameless brook," o'er arched 
with vines. This the soldiers crossed, and halted till 

17 



HISTORIC SKETCH 

the teams came up, when, tempted by the luscious 
odor of the grapes, all stopped to gather them. " Then, 
says Cotton Mather, " A vast body of Indians enter- 
tained them with an assault " and 

"Swarming forth from out their vine-clad hive, 
The infernal hornets came, 
And sting on sting made all the copse alive 
With darts, and wounds, and flame: " 

and the stream, nameless no longer, was thenceforth 
known, and should be forever known, as Bloody 
Brook. Not one of the seventeen teamsters who went 
out from Deerfield that morning returned. The next 
day, Sunday, the dead were buried in a common grave. 
A red sandstone slab in a dooryard a few rods south 
of the monument marks the spot. 

THE LAMENTABLE BALLAD OF THE BLOODY 
BROOK 

By Edward Everett Hale 
Come listen to the Story of brave Lathrop and his Men, — 

How they fought, how they died, 
When they marched against the Red Skins in the Autumn Days, 
and then 
How they fell, in their pride, 
By Pocumtuck Side. 

"Who will go to Deerfield Meadows and bring the ripened 
Grain?" 
Said old Mosely to his men in Array. 
"Take the Wagons and the Horses, and bring it back again; 
But be sure that no Man stray 
All the Day, on the Way." 
i8 



HISTORIC SKETCH 

Then the Flower of Essex started, with Lathrop at their head, 

Wise and brave, bold and true. 
He had fought the Pequots long ago, and now to Mosely said, 

"Be there Many, be there Few, 

I will bring the Grain to you." 

They gathered all the Harvest, and marched back on their Way 
Through the Woods which blazed like Fire. 

No soldier left the Line of march to wander or to stray, 
Till the Wagons were stalled in the Mire, 
And the Beasts began to tire. 

The Wagons have all forded the Brook as it flows, 

And then the Rear-Guard stays 
To pick the Purple Grapes that are hanging from the Boughs, 

When, crack! — to their Amaze, 

A hundred Fire-Locks blaze! 

Brave Lathrop, he lay dying; but as he fell he cried, 

"Each Man to his Tree," said he, 
"Let no one yield an Inch"; and so the Soldier died; 

And not a Man of all can see 

Where the Foe can be. 

And Philip and his Devils pour in their Shot so fast, 

From behind and before. 
That Man after Man is shot down and breathes his last. 

Every Man lies dead in his Gore 

To fight no more, — no more! 

Oh, weep, ye Maids of Essex, for the Lads who hxve died, — 

The Flower of Essex they! 
The Bloody Brook still ripples by the black Mountain-side, 
But never shall they come again to see the ocean-tide, 
And never shall the Bridegroom return to his Bride, 

From that dark and cruel Day, — cruel Day! 

19 



HISTORIC SKETCH 

Soon after this massacre the garrison was with- 
drawn from Deerfield, and the few inhabitants were 
scattered in the towns below. 

After Captain Turner's defeat of Philip's Indians 
at the Swamscott Falls, now called Turner's Falls, and 
the death of that noted chief, prowUng bands of sav- 
ages still infested the valley. One of these, after sur- 
prising Hatfield, fell upon Quentin Stockwell and a 
few comrades, attempting to rebuild in Deerfield, and 
hurried them with the Hatfield captives to Canada. 

In 1680 measures were taken for the reoccupation 
of their lands by the Proprietors of Deerfield, and the 
spring of 1682 is considered as the date of the per- 
manent settlement of Deerfield. The work proceeded 
rapidly, and in 1686 the first Town Meeting was held. 

After the accession of William of Orange, the French 
and English colonies in America became involved in 
war, and Canada Indians, led by Canadian French, 
devastated our frontiers. 

The news of the massacre at Schenectady, February, 
1689-90, led to the immediate surrounding of Meeting- 
House Hill in Deerfield with a palisade of logs twelve 
to fourteen feet high, and large enough to shelter all 
the people. Rude structures (shacks) were put up 
for famihes who could not be taken into the houses 
already built on the hill. From this time on, Deer- 
field was in a state of alarm. Though a garrison was 
stationed here, and scouting on our frontiers kept up, 
there was now and then a sudden inroad of small 
bodies of the enemy, and individuals were surprised 
and carried off or killed. 

The arrival of Dudley in Boston as Governor of 



HISTORIC SKETCH 

Massachusetts in June, 1702, brought the news of 
Queen Anne's declaration of war against France. In 
August, every EngUsh town on the Maine coast was 
attacked by French and Indian forces. The forti- 
fications at Deerfield were strengthened. A sense 
of impending danger depressed the people, and they 
besought their minister to write to the Government 
in their behalf. "Strangers tell us," he says, "that 
they would not live where we do for twenty times as 
much, — the enemy having such an advantage of the 
river to come down upon us. Several say they would 
freely leave all they have, and go away, were it not 
disobedience to authority and a discouraging their 
brethren." He asks for help in repairing the palisade. 
He says, "We have mended it. It is in vain to mend. 
We must make it all new and fetch timber for 206 rods, 
three or four miles, if we get oak." As spring ap- 
proached the settlers breathed more freely. Mr. 
Williams urged caution and vigilance. He set apart 
a day of prayer to ask God "Either to spare and save 
us from the hands of our enemies, or prepare us to 
sanctify and honor him in what way soever, he should 
come forth towards us." 

Lulled by frequent false alarms into a fatal sense 
of security, the Deerfield people slept soundly on the 
night of the 29th of February, 1703-04. The bitter 
cold penetrated even the best built dwellings; the drifted 
snow lay piled outside against the palisades, but no 
consciousness of unusual danger disturbed the slum- 
bering people. Yet with the rushing of each fitful 
gust, the cruel foe was creeping stealthily nearer to 
the little hamlet. 



HISTORIC SKETCH 

The stormy night was well-nigh spent, the guard lay 
heavy in his first sleep, when "The enemy came in hke 
a flood." Climbing the pahsades at the northwest 
comer, rushing to and fro within the fortification, the 
horrid crowd attacked the houses of the defenseless 
people. Roused by their hideous yells, the sleepers 
woke bewildered, to find themselves surrounded by 
dusky faces, fiendish with fresh war paint. Resist- 
ance was vain. Some were instantly murdered ; others, 
powerless from fear, were fiercely torn from their warm 
beds, bound hand and foot, and hurried out .half 
naked into the bitter night. 

Deafened by the tumult, blinded by the glare of 
torches, they were huddled together in Ensign Sheldon's 
house, and in the meeting-house, where but yesterday 
their faithful shepherd had folded his flock in peace. 
Confusion and terror reigned. The place which they 
had been taught to revere as the house of God, was 
now defiled and desecrated. There, where so lately 
their voices had mingled in prayer and praise, could 
now be heard only the groans of the wounded, the 
waihng of women, the shrieks of children, and the 
tremulous voices of the aged calhng upon God to 
"Remember mercy in the midst of judgment." 

There were one hundred and eleven captives. Mr. 
WilHams wrote in "The Redeemed Captive": "About 
sun an hour high, we were all carried out of the house 
for a march . . . over the river" (probably by Red 
Rocks), "to the foot of the mountain about a mile from 
my house." The French kept between their captives 
and the village. About eight o'clock in the morning, 
thirty men on horseback arrived from the towns below. 

22 



HISTORIC SKETCH 

They, with the five garrison soldiers, and fifteen Deer- 
field men that were left, drove the plundering stragglers 
out by the north gate, pursuing them into the north 
meadows to the river's edge, where the enemy, await- 
ing them in ambush, killed several and drove the rest 
back. After "Indian shoes" had been given to the 
Deerfield prisoners, they cHmbed the hill to the trail 
where, a few hours before, the Indians had put on 
their war paint. That night they camped in Greenfield 
meadows, east of the old Nims house. A captive ran 
away, and Mr. Williams was told by "the general" 
that if more escaped the rest should be burned. 
Marah Carter, the first of those slain on the jour- 
ney, was killed this day. She was only three years 
old, and "Their manner was, if any loitered, to kill 
them." 

The Governor of Canada wrote to his home govern- 
ment : " I had the honor ... to inform you of the suc- 
cess of a party sent this winter on the ice as far as the 
Boston government." This party of two hundred 
French and one hundred and forty-two Indians under 
Hertel de Rouville, went to attack Deerfield by way 
of Lake Champlain to the Winooski River, and up that 
stream until they crossed over to the Connecticut. 
They carried their captives back to Canada over these 
same long three hundred miles. 

On the second day they followed Green River 
about two miles. Mr. Wilhams wrote that he was 
permitted to speak to his wife "And to help her in her 
journey . . . My wife told me her strength of body 
began to fail and that I must expect to part with her 
... I was put upon marching with the foremost, and 

23 



HISTORIC SKETCH 

so made my last farewell of my dear wife, the desire 
of my eyes." — After wading knee deep through the 
swift and icy current of Green River, Mr. Williams 
was permitted to sit down and be "unburthened of 
his pack." He wrote, "I asked each of the prisoners 
(as they passed by me) after her, and heard that pass- 
ing through the abovesaid river, she fell down, and was 
plunged over head and ears in the water; after which 
she travelled not far, for at the foot of that mountain, 
the cruel and bloodthirsty savage who took her, slew 
her with his hatchet at one stroke, the tidings of w'hich 
were very awful." 

The P. V, M. A. has marked the spot with a suitable 
stone. 

Mr. Samuel Carter has recently traced the route of 
the party, which doubtless followed the trail, running 
northeasterly from Leyden into Bernardston, rounding 
Bald Mountain. This day they travelled eight miles 
and the third day's journey, of equal length, took them 
through Vernon. They probably made their camp 
on the bank of the Connecticut, where afterwards was 
Fort Dummer. Here they must have taken to the 
ice of the Great River, going as far as West River, 
where the Canadians had left their dogs and sledges. 
With these to carry their wounded, their packs and 
some of the children, they "Marched at a great pace." 
Stephen Williams says: "They travelled (we thought) 
as if they designed to kill us all, for they travelled 
thirty-five or forty miles a day. Here they killed near 
a dozen women and children." 

On the Sabbath day they rested, and Mr. Williams 
was permitted to pray, and preach to the captives. 
24 



HISTORIC SKETCH 

"The place of Scripture spoken from was Lam. i. i8." 
This was at the mouth of the river called, in memory 
of this day, "Williams River." On the ninth day, at 
the junction of the White and Connecticut, De Rouville 
separated them into several parties, each to take a 
different route, and the captives never again all came 
together. 

Mr. Williams's master joined a party of hunting 
Indians "A day's journey from the lake," and it was 
in the seventh week of his captivity that they "Again 
began a march for Shamblee " (Chambly). Then they 
" Came to a river where the ice was thawed " (the Sorel), 
and "Made a canoe of elm-bark in one day and arrived 
on a Saturday" (probably April 15th) at Chambly — 
a few miles south of Montreal. Most of his Deerfield 
friends had arrived — some of them three weeks 
earher. 

Sooner or later most of the captives were redeemed. 
Eighteen of the thirty whose fate was unknown, have 
been traced by Miss Baker in their Canadian homes. 

And of those left behind?— The snow had become 
soft; the New Englanders had no snow-shoes, and it was 
impossible for the men who had come to the help of 
the afflicted town, to follow and attempt the rescue 
of the captives. 

More than half the village folk were dead or cap- 
tured, and those that were left (twenty-five men, 
twenty-five women, and seventy-five children, mostly 
under ten) had lost courage and hope; but the 
Government decreed that the town must not be de- 
serted. So the women and children were sent to 
safer places, and gradually the men rallied. They 
25 



HISTORIC SKETCH 

had houses for their shelter and soldiers for their pro- 
tection, — and the fertile fields could be cultivated. 

The town meeting was late that year, and the record 
is in a new handwriting, for the clerk, Thomas French, 
was far away. No reference is made to the great 
disaster. 

Happily there is little history for the next seventy 
years. In 1756, at the time of the last French war, 
many Deerfield men being "impressed for his majesties 
Service" (already majesty is written in a smaller letter 
than Service), the town voted "that five Garrisons be 
built in y^ Town & one at Wapping, each to have 
two mounts & to be boarded around & fined with 
pallasadoes as high as a man's head." 

Before 1770 the representatives in the Colonial 
Assembly were Tories, but with trouble coming nearer, 
the majority of the townspeople became Whigs. Deer- 
field's story of these years, is hke that of most towns, 
unless debates were hotter and mobs more frequent, 
for Deerfield is apt to speak her mind freely. The 
Post came once a week to David Hoyt's tavern (Indian 
House). At Catlin's, the Boston Tories met their 
friends. At Saxton's and at Field's store, the Whigs 
came together and heard the story of the Boston Tea 
Party, and of the important doings in the big town, 
which Field could tell them. 

Parson Ashley drank his tea and boldly had a tea 
party, and his son presented a pound of tea the next 
day to the wife of Greenfield's Tory parson. Dr. 
Thomas Williams received a package of " Monongahela 
Balsam," which proved " to be fine green tea, and a 
good joke on the bearer." 

26 







1*1 


-Timmm 


i^??^k^ 






-^ ' Xl^HH 


1^ 



HISTORIC SKETCH 

When, on the 20th of April, the racing courier 
cried, "Gage has fired upon the people! Minute men 
to the rescue! Now is the time, Cambridge the place!" 
fifty men were ready, with Justin Hitchcock's fife to 
quicken their steps. But perhaps during the war, 
more battles were fought at home than on the battle- 
field, for the Tory element was very strong here. In 
the days of peace came the days of prosperity. Varied 
crops were in the meadows and fat oxen in the stalls. 

Locks and canals had been made around the falls 
of the Connecticut. It is interesting to remember that 
when Massachusetts men were too cautious to risk 
money in anything so novel as a canal, men of Holland 
were willing to supply the necessary capital. In 1795 
boats were running from Hartford to "Cheapside 
Landing," the head of navigation for this countr}^- 
side. A year later, stage-coaches traversed the " Street," 
being ferried over the river at Cheapside, on their way 
from Hartford to Hanover, N. H., and soon the "Bos- 
ton Road" — the fifth turnpike built in Massachusetts 
— passed through Cheapside. In 1798 a bridge was 
built across the Deerfield River. But the doom of 
stage-coach and river boat was sounded by the shriek 
of the locomotive in 1846, when the Connecticut 
River Railway was built; — and alas! the doom of the 
Deerfield farmer also, for the stretching of the iron 
bands into the fertile prairies of the great West has 
made competition impossible for the small New England 
farms. 

On the Common, which was the "Training Field" 
of the settlers and "the Fort" of 1690, near the fort 
27 



HISTORIC SKETCH 

well, is a monument of Portland sandstone, one face 
of which is thus inscribed : 

"In grateful appreciation of the Patriotism and self- 
sacrifice of Her lamented sons and soldiers, who for 
their Country and for Freedom laid down their lives in 
the war of the Great Rebellion. 

Deerfield 

Erects this Monument 

A.D., 1867. 



28 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

Broughton — Dickinson — Henry 

The house on the west side of the street at the 
"North End" is now the home of Mrs. David Henry. 
(See Directory of Industries.) 

Thomas Broughton was the first to make a home 
on this lot, which extended to the pond in the meadows, 
still called "Broughton's." In 1693 some "trading 
Indians" were camping on the hills across the river, 
and "ab* midnight (on the 6th of June) y^ came 
upon y™ & killed Thos. Broughton & his wife & 
Xdren 3." 

The frequency of Indian raids did not enhance the 
value of Deerfield real estate. After B rough ton's 
death, this property was inventoried at ;^2o, but three 
years later it was sold for "a mare at £;^, and new 
cart wheels at £2. 

Here dwelt in later days Colonel Thomas Wells 
Dickinson, who served his country as commissary and 
soldier in the Revolution. (See Frary House.) From 
papers left by him, we learn that at a critical time 
his superior said that unless he, Dickinson, could do 
"something extraordinary" in securing suppHes, Wash- 
ington would be driven from the field. He did accom- 
plish the "extraordinary^," and delivered the needed 
cattle at Hatfield. Afterwards as lieutenant, he heard 
29 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

read at West Point — perhaps from the Orderly Book 
now in Memorial Hall — that "Treason of the Black- 
est Die was Yesterday Discovered," thus being a part 
of the beginning and seeing the end of Benedict Arnold's 



Wells — Ashley- 
Next south of the Broughton house, in 1693, dwelt 
the family of Lieutenant Thomas WeUs, who until his 
death, in 1690, was commander of the soldiers here. 
His commission, signed by Governor Andros, is in Me- 
morial Hall. On the night when the Broughtons were 
killed, his widow Hepzibah and three children were 
"knocked on the head and scalped." One child died. 
Another survived to become a victim of the massacre of 
Feb. 29, 1704, and the mother, recovering after years 
of suffering, married Daniel Belding and was killed 
on the march to Canada. 

In 1732 this was the home of Rev. Jonathan Ashley. 
(See page 77.) His house, which was removed to the 
back of the lot, was stockaded in the French and In- 
dian Wars. 

Sheldon — Hawks 

The Sheldon homestead (see Directory of Indus- 
tries) has been in the family since Ensign John bought 
it for his son John. The house now standing was 
built before 1743. It was the birthplace of Mr. George 
Sheldon, to whom Deerfield owes much. He is the 
author of the "History of Deerfield" and many his- 
torical papers, and founder of the Pocumtuck Valley 

30 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

Memorial Association. The stone which marks the 
house is inscribed : 

Sheldon Homestead. 
Bought by John Sheldon 1708. 
Handed down from sire to son 

to the present owner. 

Longest holding of any estate in 
Franklin County. 

Erected 1901. 

Dickinson — Houghton 

The fourth house from the North End was built 
about 1790, by David Dickinson, a Major of the 
Revolution. The Rev. George H. Houghton, late 
rector of the "Little Church round the Corner" East 
27th Street, New York, hved here in his boyhood. 

Hoyt — Andrews 

On the site of the square, modern house was, in 1704, 
the home of David Hoyt, Lieutenant and Deacon. 
He, his wife and four children were captured in 1704. 
A few months later he died of starvation at Coos, New 
Hampshire. His wife (the third he had married) was 
redeemed and took to herself a third husband. Little 
two-year-old Abigail was killed on that terrible march. 
The story of Sarah Hoyt's marriage is told on page 51. 

Her brother Jonathan was taken by his Indian 
master to Lorette. One day in 1706, when he, with 

31 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

the Indian, was in Quebec, selling vegetables in the 
market-place, William Dudley, being in Canada on 
a mission from our government to redeem captives, 
saw the EngHsh youth, and bought him of his master 
for twenty shining silver dollars. Soon the Indian 
returned, repentant and eager to exchange dollars for 
boy, but he was too late; Jonathan had been hurried 
to the English brig. 

In after years the Indian visited him so often in 
Deerfield, sometimes bringing his sister, that it became 
a burden, and Hoyt petitioned the General Gourt for 
reimbursement for their support. 

It was on this homestead, in 1735, when Jonathan 
Hoyt was tavern-keeper, that Governor Belcher held a 
conference with the Indians, and Hoyt's knowledge 
of the Indian tongue, which he never forgot, was 
probably helpful. 

Moors — Ball 

The cottage next south was built in 1848 by Rev. 
John F. Moors, D.D., who was minister of the Uni- 
tarian Church, Chaplain of the Fifty-second Regiment 
of Massachusetts Volunteers in the Civil War, and the 
historian of the regiment. 

Barnard — Dickinson — Tombs 

On the next lot lived, as early as 1685, Joseph Barnard, 
the first town clerk. A memorial stone, placed by 
his descendant, Mr. James M. Barnard, of Boston, 
marks the spot in the south meadows, where he re- 
ceived his death wound in 1695. His gravestone is 
the oldest in the burying-ground. The house, with its 
32 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

fine door, was built or extensively repaired by Cap- 
tain Thomas Dickinson about 1752. 

Williams — Billings 

The white house with the pretty gambrel- roofed 
extension, which is probably of greater age, may have 
been built between 1740 and 1750, Dr. Thomas 
Williams, the ancestor of the later generations of Deer- 
field Williamscs, lived here. He was the brother of 
Colonel Ephraim Wilhams, the founder of Williams 
College. 

Belding — Stebbins — Sheldon 

The site of the beautiful white house, with its gen- 
erous gambrel roof, which is now owned by Mrs. 
George Sheldon, was the home of Daniel Belding. 

In September, 1696, a company of French Mohawks 
attacked his house, which "was within gunshot of y^ 
fort," and all but three of his family of ten were killed 
or captured. 

About 1772 the present mansion was built by Joseph 
Stebbins, and here were bom his thirteen children, 
many of whose descendants live in Deerfield. 



33 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

The events of his life are recorded on the stone 
placed near the house. 

"Home of Joseph Stebbins 

bom 1749, died 1816. 

A lover of liberty 

and a servant of his country. 

Lieutenant of Minute Men 

who marched on the Lexington alarm. 

Captain at the battle of Bunker Hill. 

Fought at Stillwater and Bemis Heights. 

He led a force of volunteers 

Across the Hudson 

near Fort Miller and captured an outpost 

in the rear of Burgoyne. 

Commissioned Colonel of Militia, 1788. 

His descendants honor his memory 
and cherish his old home." 

Pratt — Childs 

The house next the hotel, now occupied by Mrs. 
Mary W. Childs (see Directory of Industries), was the 
home of Miss Martha Goulding Pratt. Here and in 
the adjacent building, she served as postmaster twenty- 
five years. 

Sheldon — Hoyt — Wells 

Under the great elm behind the brick meeting- 
34 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

house is the stone that marks the site of the home of 
Ensign John Sheldon. 

"SITE OF THE 
OLD INDIAN HOUSE 

Built by Ensign John Sheldon, 1698. 

It stood for 144 years 

testifying to the tragedy of 

Feb. 29, 1703-4. 

Its stout door which kept at bay 

the French and Indians 

is now safe in Memorial Hall 

where its hatchet-hewn face 

still tells the tale of 

that fateful night." 

John Sheldon bought of the town a small piece of 
the training iield that he might build his house within 
the stockade. It was twenty-one by forty-two feet, 
with a steep roof. There were two stories, the upper 
projecting about two feet. A "lentoo" which ran 
the whole length of the north side made more space, 
which was truly needed, for the chimney at its base 
was about ten feet square. 

The floor was laid under the sill, forming a ledge 
around the room, which made a comfortable seat for 
the children. The frame was mostly of oak, the walls 
and partitions of pine, the panels and mouldings cut 
from the soHd wood. On the night of the attack, 
John Sheldon's wife was killed by a random shot 
through the hole hacked by the savages in the strong 
spiked door. One child was killed, three more with 
his daughter-in-law captured. To redeem them and 

35 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

others, he was sent by Governor Dudley three times 
to Canada. By his efforts one hundred and thirteen 
captives from Deerfield and other places in New 
England were brought back^ In early Revolutionary 
days, David Hoyt was the tavern-keeper, and his house 
was a gathering place for the Tories, the Whigs having 
theirs across the Common. 

In 1847, the house being uncomfortable because of 
its age, and perhaps because it was visited by all the 
people who travelled by stage through the town, its 
owner, Henry K. Hoyt, offered to sell it for a nominal 
sum, if it could be kept as a memorial of the past; but 
Deerfield failed to respond, and the Indian House 
(which Mr. Palfrey and other writers have by mis- 
take, called the home of Rev. John WiUiams) was 
torn down. 

The door, which became the property of David 
Starr Hoyt, was after his death bought by Dr. D. D. 
Slade of Boston. Five years later Dr. Slade magnani- 
mously sold it to a group of Deerfield persons. In 
1868 some trustees were appointed to receive it, and 
the door was held by them until the Pocumtuck Valley 
Memorial Association was formed, when it became the 
nucleus of their collection. 

Stebbins — Wells 

The next estate, where the brown house now stands, 
has been owned by six generations of Wellses. "Thomas 
Wells, Cordwainer" bought it in 1724. Wells was 
also called "doctor" and was, so far as is known, the 

» See " Ensign John Sheldon " in " True Stories of New England 
Captives carried to Canada." 

36 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

first in the town. Benoni Stebbins tried to settle on 
this lot in 1677, but Indians carried him off. In her 
"True Stories," Miss Baker relates the early adven- 
tures of Benoni and of his wife, Mary Broughton, 
who was "presented to the Court for wearing silk 
contrary to Law." 

A witness of the attack of 1704 wrote that Stebbins 

and a little group of men and women "stood stoutly 

to y'r armes . . . with more than ordinary couridge." 

The memorial stone bears this inscription; 

"Feb. 29, 1703-4. 

The unfortified house of Benoni Stebbins 

standing on this lot, was held by 

'7 men, besides women and children' 

for three hours 

against the assault of 200 soldiers 

and the wiles of 140 Indians 
under a French officer of the line. 

Stebbins was killed 

Mary Hoyt and one man wounded. 

When forced to draw off 

The French had lost their lieutenant 

and the Indians their chief." 

Williams — Dickinson — Williams 

The house of Rev. John WilHams , "as big as Ensign 
Sheldon's, and a back room as big as may be thought 
convenient," was built by the town in 1686, on the 
lot probably chosen for the purpose by the committee 
who laid out the town in 1670. As the capture of the 
Deerfield minister was one of the objects of the raid 
of 1704, the Indians went to his house "in the beginning 

37 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

of the onset." Two of his children and a negro ser- 
vant were murdered on the door-stone. The rest of 
the family were guarded in their own house, but the 
enemy, Mr. WilHams writes, "Gave liberty to my 
dear wife to dress herself and our children," Little 
Stephen did not forget his silver buttons and buckles. 
All the Wilhams children were redeemed except Eunice 
— her mother's namesake. The Christian Indians of 
the little village of Caughnawaga adopted and baptized 
her, giving her, in addition to the name Marguerite, 
an Iroquois surname, signifying, "They took her and 
made her a member of their tribe." She married 
an Indian, and had one son and two daughters. It is 
as mother-in-law of the "Grand Chef" of the village, 
that the mission priest recorded on the parish registry 
the death of this daughter of the Puritan. " On the 
twenty-sixth of November, 1785, I have buried Mar- 
guerite, mother-in-law of Onasategen. She was ninety- 
five years old." Perhaps she looked six years older 
than she was. Her daughter was the grandmother 
of that Eleazer Wilhams, who claimed to be the lost 
Dauphin of France, his strongest claim being his re- 
markable resemblance to the Bourbons. After Mr. 
Wilhams's return, the town built for him another house. 
His grandson "Squire John," who was the last of 
the family in Deerfield, sold it in 1789 to Consider 
Dickinson. He was a "character." Everybody called 
him "Uncle Sid" and many stories are still told about 
him. He was a soldier — Continental and Revolution- 
ary — hunter and fur-trader, but most of all a thrifty 
and frugal farmer. It is said that he married for the 
second time, at eighty, because he found it less expen- 
38 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

sive to support a wife than to hire a housekeeper. As 
wages were not high in 1840, one may assume that 
neither wife was an extravagant woman! Uncle Sid 
died at ninety-four, leaving his property to his wife, 
with the understanding that it should be used for some 
pubHc purpose. If one doubts the virtue of frugaHty 
let him look at Uncle Sid's shoes in Memorial Hall, — 
and then at the Dickinson High School! Mrs. Dickin- 
son left the house with the rest of the estate, which 
was much increased by her own economies, to the town 
for a " Free Academy and PubHc Library." The house, 
much changed since "The Redeemed Captive" lived in 
it, was then moved about two hundred feet westerly, 
where it now stands near his old well, which is still in 
use. 
The homestead is marked by a memorial stone : 

"This lot with a house 42 by 20 

was given by the settlers in 1686 to 

Rev. John Wilhams 

the first settled minister. 

Family captured and house burned 

by De Rouville, 1704. 

Present house built in 1707 for 

'The Redeemed Captive.' 

Here he died, 1729 

Erected by the 

Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association 

July 31, 1901." 

Amsden — Hitchcock — Stebbins 

Opposite the Williams house, in 1760, was the shop 
of Ehzabeth Amsden, weaver. Eighteen years later 

39 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

Justin Hitchcock, hatter, bought the land for one 
hundred and fifteen bushels of wheat, and built the 
house now occupied by Mr. B, Z. Stebbins, Jr. (See 
Directory of Industries.) 

Justin Hitchcock was fifer of the Minute Men, and 
leader of the choir, playing on a bass viol of his own 
make, which is now in Memorial Hall. His son 
Edward, geologist and President of Amherst College, 
was born here in 1793. The "schooling" of Edward 
Hitchcock was limited to the town school and six 
winter terms at the academy, but three colleges honored 
him with their degrees. His most valuable gift to 
the world was his investigation and description of the 
fossil foot-marks of the Connecticut Valley. In 1835 
the town of Greenfield was laying a sidewalk in front 
of the Court House — now the Gazette and Courier 
building. The contractor asked Dr. James Deane to 
look at some strange markings on the flagstones. 
Dr. Deane called them fossil foot-marks, and sent a 
description and later some casts of them ^ to Pro- 
fessor Hitchcock, State Geologist. Soon after. Colonel 
Wilson pointed out to Professor Hitchcock similar 
markings on a Deerfield sidewalk, in front of the 
house now owned by the Misses Whiting. This side- 
walk is of gray micaceous sandstone and came from a 
quarry in Gill, while the Greenfield flagstones were 
taken from the town of Montague. Similar markings 
were noted in flagging at Northampton, which had 
been brought from Mt. Tom. 

No evidence of bird hfe had ever before been found 

' These slabs, forty inches square, are now in the Cabinet of Am- 
herst College. 

40 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

in this Geologic period. After months of study of the 
fossils, comparing them with the tracks made by living 
birds, Professor Hitchcock pubHshed "An Account of 
the Omithichnites or Foot-marks of Birds on the New 
Red Sandstone of the Valley of the Connecticut." 

The Connecticut River did not exist in the Red 
Sandstone age; what is now its valley was an inlet 
of the sea, the organic remains found in its rocks being 
chiefly marine.^ The birds that left their footprints 
must have had the habit of existing waders, frequenting 
the margins of lakes and estuaries, whose muddy 
shores were afterwards converted into rock. Some 
of these birds seem to have been no larger than the 
small waders of our time, but many must have been 
enormous. Mr. Stoughton, the owner of the Gill 
quarry, where the most remarkable specimens have 
been found, said that when Huxley saw tracks ten 
and twelve inches long, he drew a picture on the face 
of the rock of the animal which made them, and it was 
eighteen or twenty feet high. What must have been 
the size of the creature whose foot-tracks measure 
eighteen and twenty inches ? 

It seems a long way from a Deerfield homestead to 
these antediluvians, but it was a self-educated Deer- 
field man who made them known to the world. 

Deacon Nathaniel, of the third generation of Hitch- 
cocks, who lived here, was secretary and treasurer of 
the P. V. M. A. from its organization until his death, 
in 1900. James, his only child, died in Andersonville 
prison. 

• A sea fan over 18 ft. long and 4 ft. wide was found at West 
Springfield. 

41 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

" The Little Brown House on the Albany Road" 

The house west of this, with the great Hlacs crowding 
close around it, has been prettily named by Mr. Sheldon 
"The Little Brown House on the Albany Road." It 
has been owned by Saxtons, Hoyts, Hitchcocks, and 
Miss Putnam, who, with Mrs. Wynne, has transformed 
it into a charming studio. Its most distinguished 
owner was General Epaphras Hoyt, the author of 
"Antiquarian Researches." 

Tradition says that General Hoyt and his young 
nephew, Edward Hitchcock, used to sit among 'the 
branches of the great elm which still shades the little 
house, to study together. 

A journey by water from Deerfield to the Delaware 
Bay is so unusual that we quote from General Hoyt's 
journal. His manuscript begins: "A Journal of a 
voyage (by God's permission) on board of Capt. 
Sweet's Fall-Boat begun July 17th, 1790 Saturday 
12 o'clock A.M. I entered on board Capt. Sweet's 
Boat at Cheapside . . . Wind N. E. Sailed down 
Deerfield River about 2 miles where it enters the Con- 
necticut River. About 2 o'clock P.M. . . . went on 
shore" (at Montague). After a voyage of three days, 
he reached Hartford, where he "found a sloop for 
N. York." "Wind S. by W. Sailed down as far as 
the town front of Wetherfield. Capt. anchored till 
morning." The sloop's "cabbin is an elegant room 
completely painted in the neatest manner. She has 
every convenience that could be wanted." On the 
fifth day Hoyt landed at " Yankey- wharf , N. York, and 
undertook to visit the different parts of the Cyty travel'd 
all most every part of it — the Houses are built Chiefly 
42 



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'• -W 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

with Brick." Going to Federal Hall he says: "About 
one third of the members (of Congress) appear to 
be what I call Pretty Men the bigest part of them 
sett with hats on their heads and canes in their 
hands." 

Lawrence 

Next the studio is a house built in 1858. 

Lincoln — Brown 

The one beyond it, the last on the Albany Road, was 
built in 1850 by Luther B. Lincoln, who established 
here a school for boys. 

Bull — WilUams 

Coming back towards the street on the comer 
of the road "To Albany," is the house built by 
John Partridge Bull in 1760. He was a gunsmith 
and armorer in the regiment of Colonel Ephraim 
WilMams. Dr. WilHam Stoddard WilHams enlarged 
the house in 1794, and it is owned by his descend- 
ants. 

Sexton — Childs 

The house at the southwest corner of the Common 
was built for a tavern by David Sexton in 1760. He 
was an ardent Whig, and his house became a meeting- 
place for the men of that party during the Revolu- 
tion. 

Recently an interesting wall decoration has been un- 
covered on the staircase and entries, and it is hoped 
that it may be restored. 

43 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

Hinsdell — Russell — Whiting 

The lot next south of the Whig tavern belonged to 
Samuel Hinsdell, by the Dedham grant. He was 
killed with Captain Lathrop at Bloody Brook. 

Mehuman Hinsdell, the first child born in the settle- 
ment (1673), was hving here in 1704. His only child 
was killed, and he, his wife, and little cousin Josiah 
Rising ^ were made prisoners. 

Mehuman was redeemed, and again "captivated" 
according to his tombstone. This time he came back 
from Canada by way of France and England. The 
house was enlarged to its present proportions by William 
Russell in 1806. 

Richards — Wilson — Eels 

South of the stand-pipe is a house that antedates 
the Revolution. It is owned by the heirs of Colonel 
Wilson. Just before the war of 181 2, Colonel Wilson 
and two companions who were in Canada were arrested 
as spies while watching a review. After three months 
in prison, the Court of Inquiry acquitted him on his 
own defense. When he came home, the militia, to 
do him honor, escorted him into the town. Perhaps, 
when a little later he marched at the head of a Con- 
necticut Valley regiment to defend Boston, he regretted 
that he had only to march home again. This lot was 
owned by "Mr." John Richards in 1698. He was 
the first schoolmaster hired by the town. In 1704 
his house was burned and his child Jemima carried 
away. She never came back. 

• See " True Stories," p. 223. 
44 




Grave of Mehumax Hinsdell 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

Brooks — Lyman — Williams — Porter 

At the foot of the little slope Hved Nathaniel Brooks 
as early as 1700. His house was burned and his whole 
family captured in 1704. The fate of the children is 
unknown. The wife was killed on the march — Brooks 
was redeemed. The present house, built about 1803 by 
Augustus Lyman, was sold by him to Ephraim Wilhams 
(lawyer), whose son, John, the late Bishop of the 
diocese of Connecticut, was born here August 30, 
1817. 

Ray — McCulloch 

The house next Bishop Williams's birthplace was 
built in 1835 by Benjamin Ray, a wagon-maker. He 
built the house himself out of lumber bought by his 
daughters, who earned it by braiding palm-leaf 
hats. 

Deerfield people will long remember his daughter 
Miss Caroline Ray, who for many years kept a little 
variety store in the Grange building. 

Childs — Champney 

The house, which stands back from the street, is the 
summer home of Mrs. EHzabcth WilHams Champney, 
to whom it has come by inheritance. At its right is 
the studio of her husband, the late J. Wells 
Champney. 

The house was built probably by Captain Timothy 
Childs, who owned the estate from 17 18 to 1767. 

The door was originally the entrance to the home 
of Alexander Hamilton on Grove Street, New York. 

45 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

Wells — Manning 

Next the Champney house was, in 1 704, the fortified 
house of Captain Jonathan Wells. The stone in front 
of the present house, built in 1868, says: 

''Here stood the pahsaded house 

of 

Captain Jonathan Wells 

to which those 

escaping the fury of the savages 

fled for safety, Feb. 29, 1703-4. 

Jonathan was the 

'Boy Hero of the Connecticut Valley' 

1676 and 

Commanded in the Meadow Fight, 

1704. 

Erected by 

The Children of Deerfield, 

1901. 

Mr. Sheldon tells the story of his remarkable bravery 
and suffering at Turner's Falls. 

Higginson — Childs 

South of the Jonathan Wells tablet, the house of un- 
known age was owned for thirty or more years by Mr. 
Stephen Higginson and his heirs, and here Rear- Admiral 
Higginson spent his boyhood. It is now the home of 
Mr. Henry S. Childs, Deerfield's town clerk since 1884. 

Hawks — Hoyt 

The old house south of it was built in 1803, but the 
estate, including the next house, has been owned by 
46 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

the Hoyt family since 1787. David Starr Hoyt, "The 
Kansas Martyr," was of this family. He was an 
engineer in the Mexican war, and was one of a small 
party that planted our flag on the summit of Popo- 
catapetl. In 1856 his sympathy with anti-slavery 
took him to Kansas. When conveying across Mis- 
souri some guns destined for Kansas, an armed mob 
forced him to surrender them, but they gained little 
by their plunder, for Hoyt had had the wit to send an 
essential part of every gun by another route. The 
citizens of Lawrence sent him as their representative 
to interview some "border ruffians," United States 
officers assuring him of safety. He went alone and 
unarmed. The next day his mutilated body was found. 
It was said that the interview over, he was followed 
by two men and killed. 

At an earlier time Colonel John Hawks, the hero of 
Fort Massachusetts, lived here. In August, 1746, Colo- 
nel Ephraim Williams left Hawks, then Sergeant, in 
command of the fort, with a garrison of only twenty- 
two men, many of them sick. They were attacked by 
seven hundred French and Indians, and surrendered 
after a brave defense of twenty-eight hours, for lack 
of ammunition. Colonel Hawks was a soldier as 
long as there was war. 

Farrington — Hawks — Smith — Tack 

The last house which faces the street on the west 
side, called Farrington House, in memory of the 
Dedham proprietor, was built, says tradition, by 
Eleazer Hawks in 171 2. 

From 1849 to 1863 it was the home of Rev. 
47 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

Preserved Smith. After thirty years of service at the 
church in Warwick, Mr. Smith retired here. Al- 
though in feeble heahh, he never gave up his habit 
of study, and wrote his weekly sermon, "beUeving 
that by use he should better retain his mental powers. 
He retained full vigor of mind to the last " — dying 
at Greenfield, aged ninety-two. 

In 1900 the house was restored by its present owner, 
Mr. Abercrombie, and is occupied by Mr. A. V. 
Tack. 

Saxton — Abercrombie 

The summer home of Mr. Abercrombie, facing the 
South Meadows replaces a pretty old house, known 
as the Saxton house. 

Arms 

On the southeast comer of the street is the tablet 
which marks, with the break of a few years, a long 
family ownership: 

"Homestead of Wilham Arms 

1698 

Founder of the 

Arms Family in America." 

Descendants of William Arms live on the home- 
stead. 

Barnard — Jenks — Davis 

The estate next north, now owned by Dr. Davis, 
was the home of several generations of Barnards — 
from 1763 to 1902. In 1744 the house was fortified. 
48 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

The first Deerfield teacher whose name is known was 
Hannah (Barnard) Beaman. Five generations later, 
Miss Sarah Barnard of the same f9,mily, became a 
successful teacher — first in Cuba, then estabhshing 
her own boarding and day school in this house. In 
war time, she went as a messenger from the Unitarian 
churches of Greenfield and Deerfield to Port Royal, to 
teach the freedmen. She served in 1864, shortly before 
her death, on the board of the town's School Com- 
mittee, probably the first woman thus distinguished 
in Massachusetts. 

Miss Barnard's school was succeeded by a classical 
school for boys, taught by her brother-in-law Mr. 
Richard Jenks. 

Mattoon — Catlin — Wells 

The modem house (1885) on the lot next it, which 
has been in the Wells family since 1819, marks the 
site of the tavern kept by Major Seth Catlin. He 
earned his title before the Revolution, Then he was 
a rank Tory, and in 1781 being "Disaffected to the 
Independence of the United States in General" and to 
some things in particular, he "Seth Catlin, Gent., 
John WiHiams, Gent., and Jonathan Ashley, Esq.," 
were ordered to attend the General Court and to 
answer "such Questions as shall be put to them." 

The first house built on the place was that of Philip 
Mattoon, who came from the east with Captain 
Turner. 

Wells 

The next house was built in 1857. 
49 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

Plympton — Catlin — Brown 

"Old Sergeant John Plympton" of Dedham, and 
"his old wife Jane," lived here in a house "eighteen 
feet long." Their thirteen children were all married 
or dead, and he must have had the courage of youth 
under his gray hairs to come to Pocumtuck in 1673, 
and greater courage to come again after Philip's war 
was supposed to be over. He was captured with 
Quentin Stockwell, carried to Canada, and burned 
at the stake. 

In the eighteenth century, Nathan Catlin and ' his 
son John made pewter buttons and rope on the place. 

Nims 

Beyond the road leading to the station of the New 
Haven and Northampton Railway is a house built 
in 1842. 

Wells — Thorn 

The house on the comer of Academy Lane, now the 
home of Dr. Thorn, was built soon after 171 7, by 
Ebenezer Wells. He left a "Good Silver Tankard to 
the church." 

Nims — Miller 

On the opposite corner the house built about 17 10 
is owned by the Misses Miller. (See Directory of 
Industries.) 

This homestead belonged to the Nims family over 
two hundred years, until 1894. Godfrey Nims was 
one of Deerfield's earliest settlers. He was a turbulent 
50 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

youth, and of his descendants there have been soldiers 
in every American war. Perhaps the most notable 
and most modest is his great-great-grandson, Colonel 
Ormand F. Nims, whose services in the Civil War 
were so distinguished that the original name of the 
battery under his command has been ignored, and its 
exploits are remembered as those of "Nims's Battery." 

Godfrey Nims's house, just within the stockade, was 
burned in 1704, and three little daughters, Mehitable, 
Mary, and Mercy perished. Two elder children were 
killed by the savages and two were captured. His 
wife was killed on the march. The eldest son had 
been carried off the year before. The story of his 
escape with three other young men is told by one of 
them, Joseph Petty, in a letter now in Memorial Hall. 

It was another son, Ebenezer, who, after several 
years of captivity, married at Lorette, Sarah Hoyt. 
Her captors were trying to force her to marry a French- 
man, and she, to free herself, publicly offered to accept 
as her husband any one of her fellow-captives. The 
two young people, already lovers perhaps, were married 
at once. In 17 14, when Ebenezer, his wife and baby 
son were about to be sent home, the Indians went in 
a body from Lorette to the ship at Quebec to beg them 
to stay, or at least to leave the child behind. 

When the baby was grown to manhood, he told 
Parson Ashley that he was dissatisfied with his bap- 
tism in the Romish Church, so he was baptized again 
and "admitted to ye fellowship of ye chh" in Deerfield. 
Two sermons were preached to show that none of the 
administrations of the church of Rome could be valid. 

But most romantic was the life of Abigail, who was 

51 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

only three years old when she made the long journey 
to Canada, "whence she came not back." She was 
carried by her Indian master to the Mission of the 
Saiilt au Recollet. There also came Josiah Rising, a 
httle Connecticut boy, who was visiting at the house 
opposite Abigail's on that February day. What the 
nuns of the Congregation did for Abigail, the Sulpitian 
priests did for Josiah. They were baptized and re- 
named Elizabeth and Ignace, and in 171 5, when 
Elizabeth was fifteen, they were married. Six years 
later, the Mission having been transferred to the L^ke 
of the Two Mountains, the priests gave them a large 
domain on which their descendants (Raizenne) still 
live. From this Canadian home, an evergreen tree 
has been brought back to Deerfield by Miss Baker and 
planted in front of Memorial Hall, on land which, 
being a part of her father's homestead, the child 
Abigail's feet must often have trodden.* 

Frary House 

Frary — Barnard — Baker 

Samson Fraiy, son of John of Dedham, probably 
cultivated land in Deerfield in 1669 or 1670, for the 
"committee" who came to lay out the street found 
his "cellar" at the North End. He may have built the 
north part of his house as early as 1683. It is the 
oldest in Franklin County, and the only one now 
standing — except the ell of the Willard House — that 
escaped the conflagration of 1704, when Frary was 
killed, and his wife captured and killed on the march. 

» See " A Day at Oka " in Miss Baker's " True Stories." 

52 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

The house was owned by Frarys until 1752, then 
sold to a Barnard. Selah Barnard added the south 
part, perhaps in 1763, using the whole as a tavern. 
There have been many pubhc meetings as well as 
merry dances in its beautiful ball-room. 

Barnard was a Major as well as inn-keeper. There 
is a pretty story of his marriage. When in 1746 he 
was going to war and went to his neighbor's to say 
good-bye, a baby was lying in its cradle, and the soldier 
said to the mother, "Keep her until the wars are over, 
and I will marry her." Twenty years later Elizabeth 
Nims became his wife. 

On the 6th of May, 1775, Benedict Arnold in a new, 
shining uniform, rode up to Barnard's tavern. He 
had been made Colonel by the Committee of Safety 
in Watertown, and commissioned by it to raise men 
in western Massachusetts to attack Ticonderoga. At 
Deerfield he sent for Thomas W. Dickinson, giving 
him a commission as Assistant Commissary and 
ordering fifteen thousand pounds of beef for the pro- 
posed army. Tradition says the bargain was sealed 
in landlord Barnard's bar-room. Arnold did not tarry 
to recruit men; he hurried on over Hoosac Mountain 
and into Vermont; but he was too late. Ethan Allen's 
plan was already proceeding, and the soldiers refused 
to serve under any other leader. To Ethan Allen and 
not to Benedict Arnold, the fort was surrendered on 
the morning of May loth. 

Dickinson with his young brother Consider followed 
Arnold with the cattle, which were paid for by the 
Committee of Safety, he receiving for his services only 
that glass of liquor in the Deerfield bar-room. 

53 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

For a century Frary House was sold and re- sold 
until in 1890, Miss C. Alice Baker, a descendant of 
Samson Frary, bought and restored it. It is one of the 
most beautiful examples of the houses of the early 
period but is not open to the public. 

Catlin — Couillard 

Still farther north, on land that was originally part 
of Samson Frary's homestead, the square house built 
in 185- replaced a very old one built by John Catlin 
after his return from captivity. His father, "Mr." 
John Catlin, made his home here in 1683. At the 
assault in 1704 his house was destroyed. He, his 
wife and six children, were killed or captured, only the 
two youngest being redeemed. His wife, Mary (Bald- 
win) CatHn, while awaiting with other prisoners, in 
Ensign John Sheldon's house, the order to march, gave 
a cup of water to a young French officer who was 
dying. He was probably a brother of Hertel de 
Rouville. Perhaps it was in gratitude for this act 
that she was left behind when the order came to start 
on that terrible journey. She died of grief a few 
weeks later. 

Stockwell — French — Orthodox Parsonage 

Where stands the Orthodox Parsonage, built in 
1849, was in Deerfield's earhest days (1673) the home 
of the brave Quentin Stockwell, and it was also Deer- 
field's first parsonage, for the Rev. Samuel Mather, 
cousin of Cotton Mather, boarded in Stockwell's forti- 
fied house. Here too, perhaps before the meeting- 
house was built, and certainly when Indians were 

54 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

known to be near, the people came together for pubhc 
worship. 

After the settlement was destroyed in 1675, Stock- 
well was eager to rebuild his house. He was the first 
to return. The Indians came and destroyed almost 
as soon. Again he was at work, when in the twilight 
of a September day in 1677, he, with the three other 
men then in Deerfield, were captured by some Pocum- 
tuck Indians from Canada, under the leadership of 
Ashpelon. They were led away into the woods on 
East Mountain, where they found a group of people, 
captured that morning in Hatfield, and then began the 
first long journey, made by New England captives to 
Canada. Among the Hatfield prisoners was Sarah 
Coleman. The Httle ragged red shoe, worn by her 
during her captivity, and now in Memorial Hall, tells 
its pathetic tale. 

The story of their redemption by Benjamin Waite 
and Stephen Jennings has been often told. After 
many delays the two men, guided by a Mohawk In- 
dian, reached Lake George. Then in an old canoe, 
patched up by the Indian, and guided only by a chart 
he had made on a bit of birch bark, they went alone 
into the wilderness in mid-winter. They found their 
friends near Chambly. Leaving them they sought 
the help of Governor Frontenac at Quebec, and effected 
their ransom by the payment of ^200. In May, 
escorted by French soldiers as far as Albany, came 
almost as many as had been carried away. Three 
had been killed, but Canada Waite and Captivity 
Jennings had been bom. From Albany, Quentin 
Stockwell sent a happy letter to his "Loving wife," 
55 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

being "in a hopeful way to see the faces of one another." 
Waite wrote: 

"To my Loving Friends & Kindred at Hatfield: — 
These few lines are to let you understand that we are 
arrived at Albany now with the captives, and we now 
stand in need of assistance, with my charges is very 
greate and heavy; and therefore any that hath any 
love to our condition, let it moove them to come and 
help us in this straight. ... I pray you hasten the 
matter, for it requireth greate hast. Stay not for y'' 
Sabbath, nor shoeing of horses. . . . We must come 
very softly because of our wives and children. I pray 
you, hasten them, stay not night nor day, for y^ matter 
requireth greate hast. Bring provisions with you for us. 
Your loving kinsman, 

Benjamin Waite. 

After Stockwell's redemption, he sought a quieter home. 
Next Thomas French, deacon, blacksmith, and town clerk 
came to this homestead. His wife was the daughter of 
" Mr." John Cathn. Every member of their family was 
killed or captured in 1704. Miss Baker has followed 
in Canada the fortunes of those who were captured. 

Freedom, aged eleven, having been placed in a 

family of Montreal, was baptized as Marie Franfoise 

and married a man of St. Lambert. Martha, who was 

eight, was given by the Indians to the Sisters of the 

Congregation at Montreal and renamed Marguerite. 

She, too, married, and her grandson, Joseph-Octave 

Plessis, became Archbishop of Canada, one of her 

most distinguished priests.^ 

' See " A Scion of the Church in Deerfield " in Miss Baker's 
" True Stories." 

56 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

Abigail, who was only six, was kept by the Indians 
at Caughnawaga and became one of them, but her 
grand-nephew, Bishop Plessis, on visiting the mission, 
could recognize her by her tall figure and European 
gait, although her face was hidden by her blanket, as 
were the faces of all the women. 



WiLLARD House 

Carter — Allen — Barnard — Hildreth — Willard — 
Dickinson — Saxton — Yale — Wynne — Putnam 

North of the parsonage, just within the Stockade, 
was in 1704, the home of Samuel Carter. Two former 
owners of the land had been killed at Bloody Brook. 
Carter bought the "lot with a house on it" in 1694. 
The "house" was undoubtedly the red gambrel- roofed 
extension of the fine Colonial house. Samuel Carter's 
wife and several children were killed, four were carried 
away — one only being redeemed at a cost of " £24 
borrowed money." Two of his children married and 
lived always in Canada. Their father left ;^5oo to 
John and ;i^ioo to Mercy, who was the wife of an 
Indian, if they would come to Connecticut and stay 
ten years. When he was younger, John, who was only 
nine when captured, had promised to return, but he 
preferred his new home, even with the promise of the 
legacy. The father, left alone, had gone to Norwalk, 
selling his house to Samuel Allen, the grandfather of 
Colonel Ethan Allen. The next owner, Samuel Bar- 
nard of Salem, bequeathed the land to his nephew 
Joseph, who devoted thirteen years to the selection of 
timber, that no knot might be in the wood work of the 

57 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

fair house he built in 1768; and years of heat and frost 
have not shrunken the cornice, panels, or floor. 

" Lawyer Sam " Barnard inherited the house, and 
here, one Sunday morning in December, 1792, his three 
eldest daughters, dressed ahke in blue-gray silk gowns 
and pink bonnets, were married in the pretty parlor, 
going to meeting afterwards. 

NABBY AND RACHEL AND SALLY 

By H. Isabel Williams 
The years they roll over our hill -tops and leas, 
And fresh grow the dates on our family trees; 
Soon we shall belong, all we girls of the valley, 
With dear little Nabby and Rachel and Sally, 
To the dim long ago. 

I suspect that this age is much like the last, 
As far as concerns the girls of the past, 
Though the list of their studies may then have been shorter. 
Like the waists of their dresses, than ours, by a quarter, 
In that quaint long ago. 

The girls once called Sally are Sadie to-day; 
But what's in a name, I am sure you will say, 
And, with neighborly pride in the three sisters sweet, 
Let us think of them all as girls of "Our Street," 
For they were long ago. 

You don't think of them there in the Manse at high noon, 
As you pass; go again by the light of the moon, 
And you will say they are yet in the town, 
And in their old home, with the moon shining down 
As it did long ago. 

58 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

I walked by alone, but this December last, 
And lo! the white pathway led into the past; 
This century vanished, and I seemed a mate 
Of the three dainty brides who were married in state, 
On a morn long ago. 

A Sunday it was, and though not at the Manse, 
All had seen them at meeting; some envied their chance. 
And the preacher's black clothes lacked the charm of those blue, 
That gave a most heavenly look to one pew, 
All those hours long ago. 

Gazing down, I considered what fine things brides were. 
How like angels they looked, in those cloaks trimmed with fur; 
No wonder Hart Lcavitt thought Rachel a prize. 
And Dr. John Stone had such very fine eyes, 
So I thought long ago. 

The Bamards sold the house after about eighty 
years of ownership, and Hosea Hildreth, who was pre- 
ceptor of the academy, lived in it, and his son Rich- 
ard, who wrote the "History of the United States" 
was born here. 

Dr. Willard was its next occupant from 1807 until 
his death in 1859, except for a few years' absence, and 
in his memory the house is named. 

Mr. Willard and his bride drove with their horse and 
chaise from her home in Hingham, a four days' jour- 
ney. In Mrs. Yale's interesting "Stor\^ of the Willard 
House," we learn that Mrs. Willard wore to church the 
first Sunday ''a fawn-colored silk spencer and white 
skirt, and a Leghorn hat trimmed with white." The 
furnishings of their home were simple, but they had 

59 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

a pianoforte (Clementi) the first and, for years the only 
one in the town. Miss Willard writes that " On a pleas- 
ant summer evening, a line of villagers might have 
been seen ranged in front of the house, to hear Mrs. 
Willard play." The piano is now in Memorial Hall. 
After Dr. Willard resigned in 1829, the family moved 
to Hingham, returning seven years later, when his son- 
in-law, Luther B. Lincoln, became preceptor of the 
academy. Dr. Willard was an early abolitionist and 
when, in 1838, the slaves in the British West Indies 
were set free, the family sang at midnight a hymn 
written for the occasion by his daughter Mary. At 
Dr. Willard's suggestion the day was solemnized in 
Deerfield by a meeting in the church. Miss Willard 
thought this was the time when the tongue was taken 
from the bell to prevent its being rung, and horns 
were blown to disturb the service. Among the guests 
entertained by Dr. Willard were Dr. Channing, Dr. 
Henry Ware and his son Henry, Rev. John Pierpont, 
Charles Sumner, Horace Greeley, and Emerson, who 
spent a week under the hospitable roof. 

Rev. Rodolphus Dickinson lived in the house while 
the Willards were in Hingham. He had been an 
Episcopal minister in South Carolina, where in 1826 
he preached against slavery. His published works are 
on many subjects. There were six editions of "A 
Compendium of the Religious Doctrines, Rehgious 
and Moral Precepts, Historical and Descriptive Beauties 
of the Bible, with a separate moral selection from 
the Apocrypha, being A transcript of the Received 
Text, Intended for the use of Famihes but more par- 
ticularly as a Reading Book for Schools." He also 
60 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

printed "A New Version of the New Testament." 
His later years were spent in a house on Pine Hill, 
which he built with his own hands, and where to-day 
his grandson, Rodolphus Dickinson Campbell, Hves and 
makes pretty verses. 

Another occupant of the house, Jonathan A. Saxton, 
was an "advanced thinker" and contributor to "the 
Dial." His son. Brigadier- General Rufus Saxton, a 
graduate of West Point and servant of his country, 
now lives in Washington. In 1885 Dr. Willard's heirs 
sold the house, and Mrs. Yale, who wrote its "Story," 
Mrs. Wynne, and Miss Putnam came to make it more 
beautiful than ever before. 

Stebbins — Lamb 

The yellow brick house, occupied by Mr. J. E. 
Lamb, was built in 1799 by Asa Stebbins. 

Stebbins — Field — Russell — Childs 

Next it, the "pink house" (which was red long ago), 
was built by Colonel David Field, who owned the place 
from 1754 to 1785. He was perhaps Dcerfield's lead- 
ing patriot in the Revolution. He was Chairman of 
the Committee of Correspondence and Safety, and 
delegate to the Provincial Congress (1775) and the 
Constitutional Convention (1779-80). His store was 
the gathering place for the Decrfield Whigs and the 

"Liberty Pole 

Planted here by the Patriots 

July 29, 1774," 

as one reads on the boulder, was placed in front of it. 
61 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

Because David Field gave his money freely to the 
cause he loved, his affairs became involved, and after 
the war he lost everything. Let us remember this 
when we read that his and his wife's ''monuments are 
gratuitously erected by their son-in-law." 

Later "European and Indian goods" were sold in 
the store, and perhaps the oldest inhabitant remem- 
bers "Aunt Orry" Russell, the village tailoress who 
lived and worked here thirty or forty years. 

In still earUer times, John Stebbins, brother of Benoni, 
the only man who escaped unharmed from the Bldody 
Brook massacre, lived here. His house was destroyed 
and all his family captured in 1704. Three were 
redeemed. Four remained in Canada, where their 
descendants are living. Nothing was known of their 
fate until Miss Baker traced them on the Canadian 
records. Abigail, having married a Frenchman in 
Deerfield before 1704, may have found captivity in her 
husband's country agreeable, but her eldest child, when 
he was about ten years old, having been sent with a 
party of French and Indian traders to visit his grand- 
parents, preferred New England, where he founded 
not only a family but a name, his own being changed, 
probably by clumsy tongues, from Rene de Noyon 
to Aaron Denio. He inherited his mother's portion. 
John Stebbins, sore at the absence of his children, wrote 
in his will, "Those that will not Hve in New England 
shall have five shilhngs apiece and no more." 

Kellogg — Hawks — Everett 

On the next lot, which in 1772 was owned by Zadock 
Hawks, who with his sons Zur and Zenas were curriers 
62 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

and tanners, is a house built by Zenas in 1805. It is 
owned by a descendant. 

A century earlier Martin Kellogg lived here. His 
wife alone escaped captivity in 1704. Two sons re- 
mained several years in Canada, "travelling two & fro 
amongst the French and Indians" trading "so as to get 
considerable of monies." They learned the languages 
of both peoples and perhaps spelled them better than 
their own. They were useful men as interpreters after 
their return, and in caring for the Mohawk children, 
who were being educated at Stockbridge at Sir Peter 
Warren's expense. A sister was also an interpreter at 
this school, and another, who never came back, became 
the wife of a chief of Caughnawaga. 

Sheldon 

The house owned by the heirs of Mr. William Sheldon 
was an old one in 1825, when it was rebuilt. Baron 
Komura and his friend Matsui spent the summer of 
1879 in Mr. Sheldon's family. Komura had just been 
graduated from the Harvard Law School. 

Bunker — Beaman — Bardwell — Allen 

In the Hst of Dedham Proprietors are the names of 
two women; one of them, "Mrs. Bunker," drew the 
lot on which stands the pretty, old, gray house with 
the lean-to, where the Misses Allen hve. (See Directory 
of Industries.) It has come to them by inheritance 
from Thomas Bardwell, who bought it in 1722 of the 
Widow Hannah Beaman. Her husband Simon was 
a garrison soldier, and she the school dame. In 
September, 1694, St. Castine with a band of soldiers 

63 



STORIES OF THE HOMESTEADS 

and Indians was creeping towards the town from East 
Mountain, intending to attack at the north gate, which 
was in front of the present brick church. A boy saw 
them, gave the alarm and was shot, but he saved the 
town. Mistress Beaman and her httle fiock raced for 
their hves and reached the fort, although many bullets 
were sent flying after them. In 1704, she, her hus- 
band, and a servant were captured and redeemed. 

Unitarian Parsonage 

The small house occupied as the parsonage ' was 
built in 1861. 

Childs 

The house next it in 1872. 

Bardwell — Stebbins 

And the old gray one, lately restored by the Misses 
Allen, probably in 1771, by Samuel Bardwell. It has 
been owned by the Stebbins family since 1799. 

Hinsdell — Williams — Cowles 

Colonel Ebenzcr Hinsdell inherited this lot from his 
father Mehuman. Since then it has had many owners. 
About 1 816 Ebenezer H. Wilhams remodelled the house, 
which was already old, putting on the parlor walls 
the beautiful French landscape paper which still 
adorns them. 

Stebbins — Wright 

The brick house on the corner was built in 1824 
by Asa Stebbins. 

64 



INDIAN BRIDGE — THE BARS 

It was at Indian Bridge, one midsummer day, that 
Joseph Barnard was wounded. There had been ru- 
mors of danger. Captain Wells came out of his forti- 
fied house near the foot of the street to warn the 
men as they rode past, sitting astride their bags of 
corn. 

The stone at the bridge tells the story: 

Joseph Barnard 

Godfrey Nims, Henry White 

and Philip Mattoon, 

going to mill on horseback, 

were here fired upon 

by Indians in ambush 

Aug. 21, 1695. 

Barnard was mortally wounded 

and died Sept. 6. 

He was the first Town Clerk and 

"A very useful & helpful man in y*" place." 

Barnard's horse was killed and Godfrey Nims took 
him up, and his horse being shot down, he was mounted 
behind Mattoon " & came of home." John Pyncheon 
said that his death was "A Humbling providence, he 
being a very useful and helpful man in y^ place so 
much under discouragement." 

65 



INDIAN BRIDGE — THE BARS 

For the dedication of this tablet, Mrs. Elizabeth W. 
Champney wrote the following: 

Do you ask, — " Why this stone by the brookside. 
Since with heroes your fame-roll is filled, 
Why honor this plain Joseph Barnard 
Who simply went out and was killed? 

He was warned by the guard at the stockade 
He was certainly rash or self-willed, 
It was worse than a crime, 'twas a blunder, 
To go out and get himself killed. " 

Stout Jonathan Wells had a vision, 
That leader unused to affright, 
"The Indians skulk by the highway: 
I saw them in dreams of the night." 

Brave Barnard smiled at the warning, 
" In danger our meadows were tilled. 
Our loved ones would surely go hungry 
If their bread-winners feared to be killed. 

They are worth every risk, our good women, 
And our children's mouths we must fill, 
So in spite of all possible danger 
There is one grist will go to the mill." 

The hand of the leader saluted. 
The man was so cheerful and calm, 
And as Barnard rode through the meadows 
His heart was repeating a psalm. 

"Thou leadest me by the still waters, 
My home in green pastures is blest, 
66 



INDIAN BRIDGE — THE BARS 

'Tis a man's part to dare for his dearest 
And humbly trust God for the rest." 

So we grave the brave name on this tablet, 
For our hearts by the story are thrilled — 
Of the hero who flinched not in danger, 
But who loved, and who dared, and was killed. 

The mill, three miles away, had been built by Joseph 
Parsons, of Northampton. Its great stone lies in front 
of Memorial Hall. It was a hundred years later that 
the mill, not far from Indian Bridge, in what is called 
"Mill Village," was built, the town then agreeing that 
"said mill shall be tax free so long as water runs and 
grass grows." It was for this mill that the canal from 
Stillwater was built. 

One of the first duties of the settlers was to build a 
fence. The cattle were allowed to run at large on East 
Mountain, and the crops on the meadows must be pro- 
tected. Beginning at Cheapside, the fence extended 
southward to Wapping and westward to Stillwater for 
seven miles, crossing the Hatfield road at the Bars. 
The town ordered it "To be made sufficient as against 
orderly cattle, so also against hoggs that be sufficiently 
ringed." There were gates on all the roads leading 
into the meadows, except on the road to Hatfield, and 
here was a set of bars, which has given the name to 
this little settlement. 

On the low tableland, just south of the meadows, in 
the house on the right, which has sheltered five genera- 
tions of Aliens, hved, in 1746, Samuel Allen. His fam- 
ily and neighbors had left their homes that year to live 
in "the forts." Because the Indians had not secured 
67 



INDIAN BRIDGE — THE BARS 

captives enough at Fort Massachusetts to satisfy them, 
as the story goes, "they came over the Hoosac by the 
Indian Path" to get some more, and seeing, one Sun- 
day, some half-made hay in the meadow, they waited 
for the hay-makers to come back the next day. They 
came — Samuel Allen, his own boys and girls with 
some others, and two or three soldiers to protect them. 
Then the Indians pounced upon them. 

The boulder that marks the place, which is reached 
by crossing the little bridge over the canal, is in- 
scribed : 

"In commemoration 

of the Bars Fight, Aug. 25, 1746 

in which 

Samuel Allen 

was killed near this spot 

while defending his children 

against the Indians." 



Erected by his descendants. 

A graphic if inelegant description is in the verse of 
"Luce Bijah" (Lucy, the wife of Abijah), a woman 
slave. 

August, 'twas the twenty-fifth, 
Seventeen hundred forty-six, 
The Indians did in ambush lay, 
Some very valient men to slay, 
The names of whom I'll not leave out. 
Samuel Allen like a hero fout, 
And though he was so brave and bold, 
His face no more shall we behold. 
68 



INDIAN BRIDGE — THE BARS 

. Eleazer Hawks was killed outright, 
Before he had time to fight, — 
Before he did the Indians see, 
Was shot and killed immediately. 

Oliver Amsden he was slain, 

Which caused his friends much grief and pain. 

Simeon Amsden they found dead 

Not many rods distant from his head. 

Adonijah Gillett, we do hear. 

Did lose his life which was so dear, 

John Sadler fled across the water, 

And thus escaped the dreadful slaughter. 

Eunice Allen see the Indians coming. 
And hopes to save herself by running; 
And had not her petticoats stopped her, 
The awful creatures had not catched her. 
Nor tommy hawked her on the head. 
And left her on the ground for dead. 
Young Samuel Allen, Oh, lack-a-day! 
Was taken and carried to Canada. 

Mr. Sheldon makes the interesting note that the last 
word on the Colony records which refers to the Indian 
occupation of the soil was an allowance made in 1737 
to Samuel Allen for " Boarding a poor lame Indian and 
his mother"; and the last hostile blow struck was that 
dealt by Indians upon Samuel Allen. 

The woman and her sickly child lived in a wigwam 
near the Aliens, who were kind to them, giving food to 
the consumptive boy, and keeping the squaw's best blan- 
ket, moccasins, and wampum in their garret. The 
69 



INDIAN BRIDGE — THE BARS 

boy died, and was buried on the little slope. When 
war between France and England was near, the mother, 
dreading what might happen, took the bones of her 
child from the ground, and with the precious rehcs "in 
a pack upon her shoulders, she — the last of her 
people — turned her slow steps towards the setting sun." 

" Young Samuel Allen, Oh, lack-a-day! 
Was taken and carried to Canada." 

Eighteen months afterwards, his uncle, Colonel (then 
Sergeant) Hawks, with one companion, set off on his 
snowshoes through the winter wilderness, to secure the 
redemption of the boy and other captives. Not only 
a ransom but a French officer was offered in exchange 
for the child, but Samuel had been adopted by an 
Indian who had lost his son, and who now kept the 
little white boy in hiding. 

All the efforts made by the French Government were 
of no avail; but one day, according to family tradi- 
tion, while Sergeant Hawks was at the Governor's 
house, a squaw's blanketed head was shyly put inside 
the door and quickly withdrawn. Twice and thrice 
this was done. Then Hawks remembered the face. 
It was the Indian of the Bars. He called her to him, 
and she whispered, "You come for Sammy Allen. In- 
dian woman know his father. Indian woman know 
his mother. Indian woman bring Sammy to his white 
uncle." And she brought the child, who, having 
grown wild in his forest hfe, turned away from the 
"white uncle." To prevent a recapture on French 
soil. Sergeant Hawks and Sammy were guarded until 
their departure. 

70 




George Fuller 



INDIAN BRIDGE — THE BARS 

The Allen house was changed by George Fuller into 
a studio, and there he painted his great pictures. Now 
it is used by his son, Mr. G. Spencer Fuller. Mr. 
Fuller was born in the opposite house in 1822. In his 
early hfe he was a painter, but after his father's death, 
he took charge of the home farm — all the time quietly 
painting pictures — for he loved better to wield the 
brush than to guide the plow. In his maturity the 
world gave him full recognition as an artist, but alas! 
at the very height of his fame, in 1884, he died at 
Brookline, his winter home. Some of his most beauti- 
tiful pictures are in private collections. The Metropol- 
itan Museum has "And She was a Witch," "Nydia," 
and "Head of Boy." The Boston Art Museum has the 
"Arethusa" and "Head of Boy." In the Corcoran 
Gallery is "Evening" and at Smith College "A Study." 



71 



MEETING-HOUSES AND MINISTERS 

First Congregational Church (Unitarian) 
Minister — Rev. R. E Birks. 
The Ladies' Society. 

A Branch of the National Alliance of Unitarian and 
other Christian Women. 

There was a meeting-house in Deerfield before 
1675. Samuel Mather, who was probably never "set- 
tled," was its minister. After the permanent settle- 
ment, a new meeting-house was built, and in 1686 the 
inhabitants, to "Incourage Mr. John WilHams to settle 
amongst them," agreed to ''build him a hous: 42 foot 
long, 20 foot wide, with a lentoo on the back side of the 
house & finish s'^ house: to fence his home lott, and 
within 2 yeares after this agrcment, to build him a barn, 
and to break up his plowing land," and "ffor yearly 
salary to give him 60 pounds," to be paid "in wheat, 
peas, Indian com and pork." 

It took seven years, until 1701, to complete the third, 
which was "Y® bigness of Hatfield meeting house." 
Twenty-six years later, when the town voted "to make 
it something comfortable for a few years," it was found 
impossible. Then the people could not agree upon a 
site for the new church, and although it was voted "y* 
y^ Select Men Shall provide ... a Suitable quantity of 
Drink and Cake to be Spent att y^ Raising of y^ Meet- 
ing house," none knew where it was to be raised. Fi- 
72 




'Ihl liKSi Church 



MEETING-HOUSES AND MINISTERS 

nally, after much discussion at a town meeting, it was 
"Concluded to move out and stand at 3 places discorst 
on, for Seting y^ meeting house and that y^ bigest 
number shall have y^ place, upon Tryal they Con- 
cluded on y^ Middle most of y^ three." This was 
where the Soldiers' Monument now stands. 

In 1729 two Harvard students made a horseback 
journey to Deerfield — "the far west." One of them 
covered the fly-leaf of his journal with pen and ink 
sketches. Meeting-houses interested him; but only 
one was labelled. From this rough drawing of "Deer- 
field Meeting-house" we are better able to describe it. 

The building was square, with a hip roof, from which 
rose a spire a hundred and twenty feet high, surmounted 
by a brass cock and ball. There were doors on three 
sides, and an outside stairway leading to the gallery. 
The bell- rope hung down in the broad aisle, for this 
church had a bell, the first in the town, except that 
mythical one known as "The bell of St. Regis." The 
picturesque story of the Indians carrying the Deerfield 
bell on a sledge to Lake Champlain, there burying it and 
afterwards carrying it to St. Regis, seems to have existed 
only in the mind of Eleazer Williams, the pretended 
son of Louis XVI. The story as told by him was 
printed in Hoyt's "Antiquarian Researches" (1824). 
At the time of the Indian raid (1704) there was no St. 
Regis, it having been estabhshed as an Indian mission 
between 1754 and 1760, and peopled by Indians from 
St. Louis (Caughnawaga). Another legend places the 
Deerfield bell in the church tower of Caughnawaga, but 
that story can also be traced to Hoyt's book. 

"The brick church," the fifth of this parish, was built 

73 



MEETING-HOUSES AND MINISTERS 

in 1824. Like many of the New England churches, 
it is modelled after those built by Sir Christopher 
Wren. The old cockerel, which the town in 1731 
voted to buy "At a price not exceeding ;^2o," sits on the 
summit of the graceful wooden spire. The mahogany 
pulpit, high now, was higher still when the church was 
built, and of the square pews, only those against the 
walls are retained. An organ of two manuals, made 
by Johnson of Westfield, was placed in the church in 
1890. A mahogany tablet, in which is framed a crayon 
portrait of Dr. Willard by Mrs. Richard Hildreth, was 
dedicated in Old Home Week, 1901. 

SAMUEL WILLARD 

1776-1859 
Pioneer of the Unitarian Movement in Western Mass- 
achusetts 
Minister of this church, 1807-1829 
Organizer of the Frankhn EvangeHcal Association, 

1819 
One of the founders of the American Unitarian Asso- 
ciation 1825 
Harvard College 1803, A.A.S — D.D. 
Scholar, Author, Patriot, and although blind, a Leader 
for fifty years in Educational, Temperance, 
Peace and Anti-Slavery Reforms, 
His life ever remains a challenge to future generations. 
In Memoriam 

The ministerial library is the property of the parish, 
"But for the use of the officiating pastor thereof." 

74 




* 






^3^/0^ X, 



■ ^. 






t 






U 



"One Large Silver Cann" made by Paul Revere 



MEETING-HOUSES AND MINISTERS 



CHURCH PLATE 

The church has much interesting plate. Two of 
the oldest pieces of its service — pewter tankards — 
are in Memorial Hall. Of the silver, a very old two- 
handled cup marked "Deerfield Church" (stamped 
I O) and another marked "Church, First Parish Deer- 
field " (stamped Cary), are from unknown donors. A 
two-handled cup inscribed "H, Beaman" (stamped 
W. P.) was the gift of the first school dame. A plain 
cup, "The gift of Samuel Barnard to the Church in 
Dcerfield, 1723," is stamped I E. The five flagons 
are inscribed respectively: "The gift of Thos. Wells, 
Esquire, to the Church of Christ in Deerfield" 
(stamped Hood); "The gift of Mr. Ebenezer Wells 
to the Church of Deerfield, A.D., 1758"; "The 
gift of Samuel Barnard, Esquire, to the Church of 
Christ in Deerfield 1763" (stamped Revere); "A 
Donation from Mr. Elijah Arms to the Church in 
Deerfield, 1802" (stamped I Sorry); and "The gift 
of John Williams, Esquire, to the first Congregational 
Church in Deerfield, 1832," bears also the inscrip- 
tion, "Presented by the Directors of the Bank of 
the United States of North America and Pennsyl- 
vania, to John WiUiams, Esquire, of Deerfield in the 
State of Massachusetts, Justice of the Peace, in con- 
sideration of services rendered their institution, A.D., 
1801." Two two-handled cups and a christening bowl 
bear the inscription, "Given to the Church in Deer- 
field by Mrs. Abigail Norton, 1806," and two cups 
inscribed "Gift of George Arms, 1819," are stamped 
L. Cary. 

75 



MEETING-HOUSES AND MINISTERS 



MINISTERS 

Samuel Mather was, as we have seen, Deerfield's 
first minister. 

John Williams, grandson of Robert, " Cordwayner" 
of Norwich, England, and Roxbury, New England, 
was "settled" in 1686, having preached here for two 
years. He had married Eunice Mather, daughter of 
Northampton's first minister. Life was hard in 
frontier towns, and Mr. Wilhams wrote of his people 
to Governor Dudley in 1702: "i was yet moued from 
certain knowledge of their pouerty & distress to abate 
them of my salary for several years together, tho they 
never asked it of me, & now their children must either 
suffer from want of clothing, or the country consider 
them (by abating their taxes) & i abate them what 
they are to pay me ; i neuer found the people unwilhng 
to do when they had ability; yea they haue often done 
aboue their abihty," 

In the story of his captivity, he writes more about the 
spiritual than the physical condition of himself and fel- 
low-captives. Indeed it is difficult to know which was 
the more eager, — the Jesuit to convert, or the Puritan 
to reject. He writes that a priest said: "When the sav- 
ages went against you, I charged them to baptize all 
children before they killed them; such was my desire 
of your eternal salvation, although you were our en- 
emies"; and when he was ragged the "Superior of the 
priests" said to him, "Your obstinacy against our reH- 
gion discourages us from providing better clothes." 
"I told him," Mr. Wilhams continues, "it was better 
going in a ragged coat than with a ragged conscience. " 
76 



MEETING-HOUSES AND MINISTERS 

Mr. Williams was kept mostly at Chateau Richer, 
fifteen miles below Quebec, and was the last of his fam- 
ily to be redeemed, having been kept as a hostage for 
one "Captain Baptiste." (See "The Adventures of 
Baptiste," by C. AUce Baker. Pro. P.V.M.A., Vol. IV.) 
In 1706, the brigantine "Hope" brought him to Bos- 
ton, where he spent the winter, and wrote "The Re- 
deemed Captive." Soon after his return to Deerfield, 
he founded a new home with a new wife, and all his 
children but Eunice were again together. 

Every May he went to the " General Convention of 
Ministers of the Province" at Boston, where "he was 
always very affectionately entertained." On one of 
these visits he bought the family Bible, which is now in 
Memorial Hall, — the gift of Miss Eunice Stebbins 
Doggett of Chicago. At the May meeting of 1728 he 
preached a "very moving sermon," and the next year, 
"went to join the communion of saints in Heaven." 

Of his sons and sons-in-law, grandsons, and grand- 
daughters' husbands, seventeen were ministers. 

Jonathan Ashley was twenty years old when he 
succeeded Mr. Williams in 1732. He was a cousin and 
vigorous opponent of Jonathan Edwards, who de- 
scribed him as "A man of lax principles in religion." 
Many stories are told of his loyalty, in which he was 
certainly not lax. It is said that in a sermon preached 
soon after the first bloodshed of the Revolution, he 
declared that the doom of those fallen would be fearful 
in the next world. In Greenfield, where he repeated 
the sermon, the indignant people prevented his preach- 
ing in the afternoon. Another stoiy is that when he 

77 



MEETING-HOUSES AND MINISTERS 

had read the first proclamation which ended "God 
save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts," he rose 
to his full height in the pulpit, and added, "And the 
King, too, I say, or we are an undone people." In 
1774, the town tried to freeze him out by refusing to 
vote him any salary or firewood. Indeed, he was ever 
after unjustly treated, and at his death, the town paid 
his executors a large amount "as arrearage in salary, 
firewood and rent of town lot." 

Deerfield's first three pastorates — the third being 
that of Rev. John Taylor — lasted one hundred and 
eighteen years. 

Samuel Willard, D.D. 

"The seer who saw, through blinded eyes, 
True glories of immortal skies; 
Who clearly heard, through darkened years, 
The music of the heavenly spheres, 
And with a faithful vision keen 
Saw mysteries of the Unseen." 

The pastorate of Dr. Willard marked the beginning 
of the "Unitarian movement in Western Massachu- 
setts." The Council called to ordain him could not 
accept his "Confession of Faith," but every Congre- 
gational Church is an independent organization, and 
this one, not agreeing with the Council, "Voted to hire 
Mr. Willard to preach longer," and the Selectmen, for 
town and church were still in close communion, called 
a town meeting to determine whether the "Inhabitants" 
would agree with Mr. Willard on a time for his ordi- 
nation and upon an ordaining Council. With the sec- 
ond Council, the remonstrance of those who objected 
78 



/ 




Rev. Saaiuel Willard, D.D. 



MEETING-HOUSES AND MINISTERS 

to his belief did not avail, and he became Deerfield's 
minister. 

Of one month in his early work here, Dr. Willard 
wrote: "I have read one hundred and thirty-two psalms 
in the original Hebrew, besides writing six sermons 
and a number of long letters, attending to parochial 
duties, spending three evenings a week with a singing- 
school, and several others at trustees' meetings, hear- 
ing my pupils in the house, besides Enghsh reading and 
a due proportion of other things." 

Perhaps the busy minister of to-day does not accom- 
plish more. 

After a time his sight failed, and for forty years 
he was partially or wholly blind. He continued to 
preach, committing to memory more than a hundred 
chapters of the Bible, and every line of his own collec- 
tion of five hundred hymns. His parish was large and 
difficult to visit, and when in 1829 it became impossible 
for him to distinguish the roads as he walked, he 
thought it right to resign, — which was a great trial. 
He wrote: "Then it was a rare and solemn thing for 
minister and people to be separated by anything but 
death." For seven years the family Hved in Hing- 
ham. After their return, Dr. Willard preached often 
in his old pulpit, and helped to ordain four of his suc- 
cessors: Messrs. Fessenden, Parkhurst, Blodgett, and 
Moors. 

He was eager for improvement in church music. In 
1830 he pubhshed a volume entitled "Sacred Poetry 
and Music Reconciled," and in his eighty-second year 
he prepared a "Family Psalter" for which he wrote 
fifty or more hymns in that year. 

79 



MEETING-HOUSES AND MINISTERS 

One of the longest pastorates since Dr. Willard's 
was that of Dr. Moors, 1846-1860. He was followed 
by Mr. James K. Hosmer. So sharp were the con- 
trasts in men's lives at this time, that two years after 
receiving the right hand of fellowship in his pulpit, his 
people presented him with a silver-mounted pistol, he 
having enlisted as a private in the Fifty-second Regi- 
ment, of which his predecessor was the chaplain. The 
letters Mr. Hosmer wrote to his people, were afterwards 
published under the title of "The Color Guard." 

From 1868 to 1 891, Re v. Edgar Buckingham preached 
here. He was perhaps the most scholarly man who has 
ever filled the pulpit. Since 1901 Rev. Richard ElHott 
Birks has been the minister. 

The Orthodox Congregational Church 

Minister: Rev. George F. Merriam. 

Ladies' Benevolent Society. 

Home Missionary Society. 

Young People's Society 0} Christian Endeavor. 

For a century and a half the stoiy of minister and 
meeting-house belongs to all the people. There was but 
one church; and many Deeriield people hope that the 
two existing to-day may be united. Although there was 
much difference of opinion at the time of Dr. Willard's 
settlement, the people of Old Deerfield did not suggest 
a division. In the southern part of the town, some 
families joined nearer parishes, — those of Sunderland 
and Whately, — but it was not until June 2, 1735, that 
a second church was organized in Old Deerfield. 
Their meeting-house, — locally called "The White 
80 



MEETING-HOUSES AND MINISTERS 

Church", — was built on Academy Lane three years 
later. A convenient addition, containing a large room 
and kitchen, has since been built with money furnished 
by the women of the church. 

MINISTERS 

The early pastorates were each of only a few years' 
length, and then came Dr. Robert Crawford, who will 
long be lovingly remembered here. 

He was of Paisley, Scotland. The Paisley weavers 
used to get all the new books they could, and one would 
read aloud while the rest worked at their looms. In 
this atmosphere, the lad grew until the family emigrated 
to a new rough country in upper Canada. As soon as 
he could be spared from home, he had two opportu- 
nities ; one to be clerk and liquor seller on a river steam- 
boat, the other, a common workman in digging a canal 
around the Long Sault rapids. He loved to remember 
that he chose the latter. 

Becoming acquainted with a Williams College stu- 
dent (the son of the owner of the mill in which he was a 
weaver), and being reminded by his mother that he 
was dedicated at birth to the ministr}^, he determined 
to follow his own and his mother's wish. After much 
hard work he was graduated at thirty-one. 

He was the minister of this church from 1858 to 1881, 
and its pastor emeritus until his death in 1896. His 
last years were spent in his daughter's home in 
Connecticut. There, in his daily walks, he made the 
acquaintance of two little girls, who, not knowing his 
name, called him "Somebody's Grandpapa." When 
he died, the express, which did not usually stop at their 
81 



MEETING-HOUSES AND MINISTERS 

town, did stop to take his body to Newark, and the 
children ran into the house saying, "'Somebody's 
Grandpapa' is dead, but he was such a good man they 
didn't put him in the ground. The express train stopped 
and took him on, and took him clear to Heaven." 

When Dr. Crawford gave up the active work of the 
parish, Dr. A. Hazen succeeded to it. He had spent 
his younger years as a missionary in India, and trans- 
lated the Bible into one of the native languages. 



82 



SCHOOLS 

There may have been earlier dame schools than 
that of Mistress Hannah (Barnard) Beaman, but she 
is the first teacher whose name is known, as she was 
the first benefactor of Deerfield's schools, bequeathing 
all her lands for their benefit. 

In 1698 the first town schoolhouse was built, and 
the first teacher — probably Mr. John Richards — 
hired; it being voted, "That all heads of families y' 
have Children, whether male or female, between y^ 
ages of six and ten years, shall pay by the poll to s"^ 
school whether y^ send such children to School or 
not." This vote, we may assume, made education 
compulsory. In 1707 the town voted to sell the school- 
house for five pounds, and there is no record of another 
town school until 1720, after which time there is an 
annual vote similar to the following: "Y* y^ Select- 
men shall take care to hire some fit person to learn 
youth to Read and cypher." 

In 1 761 the pay for "reading scholars" was 2^d. 
and for "writing scholars" i|d. per week. 

Little thought was given to matters educational 
during the Revolution. After it are recorded votes 
to "Hire a schoolmaster constantly in the town." In 
1787 there was an awakening. Fifteen men formed 
a sort of corporation, calling themselves the "Pro- 
prietors of the New School." They built a school- 

83 



SCHOOLS 

house — opposite our post-office — and hired a Yale 
graduate as teacher. "Here," says Mr. Sheldon, 
"was the germ of Deerfield Academy," which was 
estabhshed ten years later (i797)- 

The town refusing its aid, money to build and endow 
the academy was raised by subscription. Land was 
bought on the Nims lot, and bricks for the structure 
were made in the brick yard at the eastern end of the 
same lot. The academy was dedicated January i, 
1799, and that year pupils came to it from forty-one 
towns. Many of the pupils were younger than acad- 
emy pupils of the present time. Rodolphus Dick- 
inson was only eight, and Oliver Smith, who in man- 
hood was the founder of the "Smith Charities," was 
thirteen. 

Some of the courses of study are obsolete, but that 
a high standard was desired, is shown by the gift of a 
"Planetarium" and "Lunarium" and the statement 
that "No person was suffered to attend to painting, 
embroidery, or any other of the ornamental branches, 
to the neglect of the essential and fundamental parts of 
education." In 1807, when possible war was dreaded 
by our young country, Major Hoyt introduced the 
"Theoretical & practical art of war." 

Strict rules were made for the conduct of the pupils. 
Morning prayers were at five o'clock, or as soon as it was 
light enough to read, with a fine of four cents for absence, 
and half that for being late. Every drop of tallow on 
a book borrowed from the library or a friend, cost six 
cents, as did every inch of a leaf torn. Boys and girls 
were not allowed to meet except at meals. If they 
walked together, they were fined one dollar, and if 
84 



SCHOOLS 

they walked at all in street or field, or visited on Satur- 
day night or Sunday, the fine was the same. 

The school prospered, and in 1810 the building was 
enlarged to what we know as Memorial Hall. The ehns 
near it were planted in 1802 or 1804. 

After the bequest of Mrs. Esther Dickinson in 1876, 
the academy funds were transferred to the trustees 
of the new school; a new building was erected where 
the Williams- Dickinson house had stood, and the 
school, adding the name of its greatest benefactor, 
became "The Deerfield Academy and Dickinson 
High School." In the building is a free library and 
reading-room. There are about thirty-five hundred 
books in the library (for hbrary service see p. 113). 
By the kindness of Mr. Birks, small circulating libraries 
are sent to adjacent villages from here, and from the 
small collection of books of the Martha Goulding 
Pratt Memorial. 

A condition of the Dickinson foundation is that 
pupils may be fitted for college. The principal of 
the school, Mr. Frank L. Boyden, a young man of 
rare foresight and discretion, is eager not only to fulfil 
that condition, but to fit all the boys and girls in his 
charge for the positions in life for which they are best 
suited. Courses in painting and embroidery have 
made way for sewing, and cooking. The "Art of 
war" is replaced by carpentry, a careful system of 
gymnastics, basket-ball, base-ball, and foot-ball, always 
under the supervision of the principal, who believes 
that "Athlet'c sports properly conducted, develop self- 
control, courtesy, and a due regard to the rights of 
others." 

85 



SCHOOLS 

In 1902, when Mr. Boyden took the school, there 
were fifteen pupils. The number has increased four- 
fold. While the old ideal of the New England Academy 
is preserved, the work is on a par with other High 
Schools. 

The school's needs are greater, while its income is 
less, because of unfortunate investments in the past. 
For the required work there must be four teachers, 
and the academy has been fortunate in securing men 
and women, who have worked together in a spirit of 
self-sacrifice for its interests. To give moral -and 
financial support to their Alma Mater, an Alumni 
Association has been formed. The fee for members 
and associate members, which includes any person 
interested, is one dollar. The officers for 1906-07 
are; Honorary President, Miss C. Ahce Baker; Presi- 
dent, Rev. Frank W. Pratt; Vice-President, Dr. Clara 
M. Greenough; Treasurer, Miss Minnie E. Hawks, 
Deerfield; Secretary, Mr. Wilham P. Gorey, Greenfield. 

On the day of the annual meeting, in June, there is 
a supper, with addresses, in Dickinson Hall. 

The friends of the academy hope that its fund may 
be so increased, that the department of manual train- 
ing which has been supported by individuals, may be 
put on a permanent basis, and thus equipped, that the 
school may attract the boys and girls from forty-one 
towns as Deerfield Academy did in its first year. 



86 




George Sheldon 



THE POCUMTUCK VALLEY MEMORIAL 
ASSOCL\TION. — MEMORIAL HALL 

The beginning of this Association was the wish to 
mark the spot near the bank of Green River, where 
Mrs. Eunice Williams was killed, and to place a monu- 
ment on the common grave in the old burying-ground, 
in which the victims of the massacre were buried. 
The idea grew until it was determined to establish 
a Society to erect a Memorial building. The first 
public appeal was followed in 1870 by the incorporation 
of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association; the 
trustees being those who had served as trustees of the 
Old Indian House Door, — with Mr. Sheldon as 
president. 

The first article of the Constitution states that "The 
objects of this Association shall be the collecting and 
preserving such memorials, books, papers, and curi- 
osities as may tend to illustrate and perpetuate the 
history of the early settlers of this region, and of the 
race which vanished before them; and the erection of 
a Memorial Hall, in which such collections can be 
securely deposited." 

In 1878 the old Academy was bought, and in Sep- 
tember, 1880, reded icated as Memorial Hall. 

The Association meets yearly on the last Tuesday 
in February, when original papers are read, and in 
summer a field meeting is held, usually in a neighboring 

87 



MEMORIAL HALL 

town where some historic event is memorialized. These 
meetings have awakened interest in local history, and 
are of great value. 

The curator's last annual report states that the 
Register bears the names of six thousand nine hundred 
and sixteen visitors from thirty- seven states and seven 
foreign countries. 

The tablets are on the walls of the Memorial Room; 
the principal one being inscribed: 

Erected a.d., mdccclxxxii. 

BY THE 

POCUMTUCK VALLEY MEMORIAL ASSO- 
CIATION; 

In honor of the Pioneers 

of this Valley, by whose courage 

and energy, faith and fortitude 

the savage was expelled, 

and the wilderness subdued; 

and to perpetuate the remembrance 

of the sufferings at Deerfield, 

Feb. 29TH, 1703 — 4, 

When, before the break of day, 340 French 

and Indians, under the Sieur Hertel 

de Rouville, swarming in over the 

palisades on the drifted snow, 

surprised and sacked the sleeping town, 

and killed or captured 

the greater part of its inhabitants. 



88 



MEMORIAL HALL 



On Tablets at either hand, 

recorded in love and reverence by their kindred 

are the names and ages of those 

who lost their lives in the assault, 

or were slain in the Meadows 

in the heroic attempt to rescue the captives, 

or who died on the hurried 

retreat to Canada, victims to starvation 

or the tomahawk. 



Besides the Room of the Tablets, there is in the 
Hall an old-time Kitchen, an Indian Room, devoted 
to Indian relics, with an especially valuable collection 
of stone implements. A Library, of over sixteen 
thousand titles and unnumbered manuscripts, is rich 
in local matter. One of its alcoves is devoted to Deer- 
iield authors. A Domestic Room contains imple- 
ments for carding, spinning, and weaving. There is 
a Bedroom and a Military Room, a room for Needle- 
work and one for the "Newton Collection," the gift 
of the late Solon Newton of Greenfield. In the large 
"Main Hall" are all the rest of the Museum's treasures. 
An illustrated guide to the hall, written by Mr. Sheldon, 
will soon be published, and also a new edition of the 
catalogue. 



89 



THE MARTHA GOULDING PRATT 
MEMORIAL. — THE VILLAGE ROOM 

The preamble to the Constitution tells its story: 

"The friends and neighbors of Martha Goulding 
Pratt, the beloved and efficient postmaster of Deer- 
field from 1870 till her death in 1894, wishing to make 
visible recognition of her fidelity and devotion as a 
public servant, and hoping that the remembrance of 
her noble and unselfish life may be an inspiration to 
them and to those who come after, have established 
a Village Room, to be known as the Martha Gould- 
ing Pratt Memorial." 

The trustees hold it for the people of the village 
and its adjuncts, and control its use for such purposes 
as, in the words of our Puritan ancestors, "Shall not 
damnify it." No rent is asked, but a fee of thirty 
cents is charged for fuel, lighting, and cleaning the build- 
ing. There is a large room with corner seats, book 
shelves and a fireplace, a coat room and small kitchen. 

At the dedication of the Memorial in September, 
1897, Miss Pratt's intimate friends spoke of her as 
each knew her. The composite portrait of their asso- 
ciate, thus unconsciously evolved, was so typical of 
the best life of New England that it was determined to 
preserve it in a little pamphlet. 



90 



THE OLD BURYING GROUND 
A Word about the Indians 

The keenest eye could discover to-day few, if any, 
traces of the Indians in the valley, yet before the Mo- 
hawks scattered them, the Pocumtucks ranked among 
the "Great Indians," that is, among the large tribes. 
The meadows, which were bare of trees, except on 
the banks of the river and little ponds, had borne their 
crops of corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, and tobacco 
before the EngHshmen came. Excavations or "Indian 
barns," where they stored their food, have been found 
on Pine Hill, and in several other places in the village. 

Many graves have been found, single and in groups. 
There seem to have been two distinct modes of burial, 
which may denote the existence here at different times 
of two tribes. They always chose pretty places in which 
to bury their dead — usually with these characteristics: 
"A promontory running out from some plain, and 
overlooking a stream of water, and the meadows 
towards which it fell off abruptly." 

"Old Street Burying Ground" 

The spot set apart by the settlers for their sacred 
ground — in the whole village there is none more 
beautiful — had already been chosen by the natives. 
Alas! their part of it was long ago destroyed for the 
gravel to be obtained from it. 

Here in "One awful grave" were buried all those 

91 



THE OLD BURYING GROUND 

slain on February 29, 1704. In 1901 there was placed 
upon the summit of a mound above the grave a stone 
which is inscribed on one face : 

"The Dead of 1704." 
And on the opposite, 

"The Grave of 

48 Men Women and 

Children, victims 

of the French and 

Indian raid on 

Deerfield 

February 29, 1704." 

Not far away under the evergreen trees, are the graves 
of Rev. John Williams and his wife Eunice; for as Mr. 
Williams wrote: " God put it into the hearts of my neigh- 
bors to come out as far as she lay, to take up her corpse, 
carry it to the town, and decently to bury it soon after." 

The oldest stone (1695), that of the town clerk, 
Joseph Barnard, is near the western wall. 

HERE LYES 
BURED Y BODY 

OF JOSEPH 

BERNARD AGED 

45 YEARS dec' 

SEPTEMBER Y^ 

6 1695 

Under an apple tree is the grave of Mehuman Hinsdell. 
All the epitaphs in thisburying-ground have been care- 
fully copied, and if they are not printed, they will sooner 
92 



THE OLD BURYING GROUND 

or later be deposited in the library of the Historical and 
Genealogical Society, Boston, which society urges the 
people of old New England towns to see to it, that the 
inscriptions in all their ancient burial places are cor- 
rectly copied and carefully preserved. 

The inscriptions on the most distinguished stones 
have been effaced, because, being "tables," the boys 
have found them convenient to use in cracking the 
nuts of the nearby trees. 

How much more can be read on the gravestones of a 
period than is written there. 

Was it the crushing name that made so many little 
girls named "Submit" die young? 

One who in 1746 

"Fell by the Indian Savage 
Valliantly Defending his 
Own Life & Childrens in 
y 45'.^ Year of his Age." 

leaves this warning: 

"Liften to me ye Mortal men Bewar^ 
That you engage no more in Direfull 
War, By means of War my Soul from 
Earth is fled. My Body Log.1 in 
Mansions of the Dead." 
Some of the inscriptions, from their uncouth arrange- 
ment, almost provoke a smile, as this in 1 762 : 

"Hope humbly, then 
with trembling Pinions 
Soar; Wait y Great tea; 
cher Death & God." 

93 



THE OLD BURYING GROUND 

What would not one give to deserve the following 
tribute paid to a noted citizen in 1784: 

"To be pious without fuperftition, 
faithful to our truft, pleafant 
in our circle & friendly to the poor 
if to imitate his example." 

In 1785: 

"Here is reposited 
the Remains of 
M-"^ Rebekah Con'°'' 
of Doct^ Edward 

who died 

of the small Pox 



Aetat 24 

with these simple and forcible lines : 

"He mourns the dead 
Who lives as they desire." 

Here is one who in 1786 

"quitted Mortahty 
in the 38* year of her Age." 

Under 1793 we find a stone erected "As a tribute of 
gratitude to the memory of an indulgent stepmother." 
Truly rara avis! 

And noblesse oblige, here is another "gratuitously 
erected by his son-in-law" to his wife's father, who 
died poor, having spent his life and fortune in the 
service of his town and state. 

Here we have one of 1795, with a light tripping air, 

94 



THE OLD BURYING GROUND 

whose subject must have made sunshine in a shady 
place, for his friends: 

"Tender were his Feelings, 
The Christian was his Friend 
Honest were his Dealings 
And happy was his End." 

The following, in 1797, seems to be a protest against 
a spirit of scepticism of the period : 

"Let the WitHng argue all 
He can. 
It is Rcligeon still that 
makes the Man." 

The last, dated 1804, is somewhat of an enigma — 
it may mean a sudden death. 

"Your eyes are upon me, and I am not." 



95 



DEERFIELD INDUSTRIES 

In earliest days, every farmer and farmer's wife were 
more or less skilled in domestic arts, but as the town 
grew, the town's needs grew, and we soon find almost 
every branch of such handicraft as was needed, exist- 
ing m the old town Street. There were shoe^makers 
tailors and hatters (but not then dressmakers and mil- 
liners!). There was the "Maker of wiggs and foretops," 
which must have been a lucrative calling, for one ^em 

If roirr'^' f " "^° " "^^ ^^^ ^^"^ Lady, 
wh'pn 1 ' '° ^' '""''-^ ^^^'^ ^^^e weavers, 

when the weaving of a yard of linsey-woolsey cost one 
shilhng and two pence, and ''Stript cloth" two pence 
more. There were wagon and chaise makers, and 
a colonel of mihtia made ploughs and cultivators of 
his own design. Bricks were made. Graves was the 
cofifin-maker, and when he moved. Death, the wheel- 
wright, occupied his house. On one place there was 
at the same time a rope walk and the industry of 
making pewter buttons; and on a homestead across 
he s reet was not only a tavern and store, but a 
tailors shop, and the shop-keeper's son was following 
his rade of watch-making. Next came a saddler, who 
Zklt , -Pu''"^ embroidered crewel and silk 
pocket-books with patterns hke the old Florentine, 
and he was followed by a book-binder and a jeweller. 
Abater, boots and shoes were made, and after all these 
96 



INDUSTRIES 

crafts on the same homestead, there followed the mak- 
ing of pictures, and writing of books by Mr. and Mrs. 
Champney. Deerfield had its weekly newspaper, and 
books were printed as well as bound. 

The farmers raised cattle, and in later days came 
the industry of broom-making, when the meadows were 
planted with the beautiful broom com, and nearly 
every house had its own shop where brooms were made 
in the winter days. Now tobacco is the chief crop, but 
it was cultivated long ago, for "Sarah Belding hid her- 
self among some tobacco in y^ chamber and escap*^" 
when the Indians attacked her father's house in 1696. 

There have been two distinct movements in Deer- 
field's industries. The first was about 1760, when it 
was indeed a busy place. More workers were needed 
and more houses for them. The land on the south side 
of the road "To Albany" had been set aside forever 
for the use of the ministry, but in 1759 the town peti- 
tioned the General Court for leave to sell the property 
to "tradesmen," as artisans were then called; for "The 
soil of s*^ lot is poor and Baren & for want of ma- 
nure" — it had always been leased land — "is ren- 
dered of but little proflit to the minister." Mr. Ashley 
consented, on condition that he had the profits of the 
sale during his ministry. This land between the street 
and bur)'ing-ground was divided into nine parcels, and 
sold immediately. Mr. Sheldon, in his charming de- 
scription of the "Little Brown House on the Albany 
Road" says: "Should the traveller from the Hudson, 
coming over the Hoosac Mountain to the Connecticut 
Valley, be waylaid by prowling Indians, and stripped of 
all his effects, he could be refitted and refreshed within 

97 



INDUSTRIES 

the borders of the old ministerial lot. Had his horse 
been spared, it could be fed, shod, furnished with a new 
saddle and portmanteau; or had fortune been more 
cruel, had the horse been taken, the traveller could be 
provided with a new one from the choice stud of breeder 
Saxton. He could buy a hat, shoes, cloth for a coat, 
and a watch for his fob. He could procure a sword, 
musket, or a pair of pistols, and, after a mug of hot 
flip and a bountiful dinner with Landlord Saxton, the 
despoiled stranger could go on his way rejoicing." 

Today's Industries 

The second movement is recent. A market was 
ready, because visitors have always been attracted by 
the natural beauty and historic interest of Deerfield, 
and her industries have profited also by the general 
interest in Arts and Crafts. 

The first exhibit and sale of Deerfield work was held 
in the Village Room in September, 1899. The object 
was twofold: to make the work better known, and by 
the door-money to increase the maintenance fund of 
the Village Room. Its success led to annual exhibi- 
tions, which are held for one week in late July. For 
three years there was no general organization; then, 
although each group of workers continued to control 
its own affairs, the "Deerfield Society of Arts and 
Crafts" was formed, and the entrance fees of the exhibi- 
tions were turned into its treasury. In 1906 the name 
was changed to the "Society of Deerfield Industries." 
An old barn has been adapted for. exhibition purposes, 
and some special exhibit is held there, while the several 
industries are shown in their own rooms, and in the 



INDUSTRIES 

Village Room. The work of several local painters is 
also exhibited. 

Rug- Makers 

Mrs. Elizabeth WilUams, several years ago, had the 
pretty notion of having rugs with carefully chosen colors, 
woven on a hand-loom, as the farmhouse rag carpets 
had been woven. This was the birth of the rug indus- 
try. Many workers have followed Mrs. Williams's 
lead. The rugs are generally made of cotton. They 
are of light weight and especially suitable for country 
houses. In the choicer ones, warp and filling are col- 
ored with natural dyes, and simple designs are some- 
times woven in. 

Mrs. Jane E. Hawks is secretary of the society. 

Society of Blue and White Needlework 

Mrs. Mary Miller copied some old embroideries in 
blue and white linen that are in Memorial Hall, and 
from this beginning, in the skilful hands of Miss Mar- 
garet C. Whiting and Miss Ellen Miller, grew the Soci- 
ety of Needlework, which, formed in 1896, was the first 
organized industry in the village. "Its object is the 
revival of the household embroideries that were brought 
by the early colonists, and kept true to the English tra- 
dition of designs until the beginning of the nineteenth 
century. The society dyes its own materials after the 
old processes in indigo, madder, and fustic; each piece 
it produces bears the mark of the society — a flax- 
wheel holding the letter D in the centre." 

Miss Margaret Miller, Sec. 

99 



INDUSTRIES 



Deerfield Basket-makers 



The Deerfield women of fifty years ago, as well as 
those of other inland Massachusetts towns, used to 
braid palm- leaf hats. In Petersham the hat-makers had 
become basket-makers. Why not here? A "braiding 
bee" was called at Frary House in the fall of 1899, and 
while the fingers of the old braiders were flying, Mrs. 
Henry Barber, of Meadville, who was visiting her old 
home, taught the novices. Now the industry is one of 
the most successful. A great variety of palm-^eaf 
baskets is made which are serviceable and inexpensive. 
Old and new models are used in reed — white and colored 
— for waste-paper, lunch, flower, and work baskets. 
Some of the best work is done with long-leaved pine 
needles, while the native willows furnish withes of pretty 
reddish and yellowish browns, for stout wood and carry- 
ing baskets. More workers are needed, especially for 
the stouter baskets, the making of which would furnish 
good occupation for a man in the winter evenings. 

Mrs. Eleanor B. Stebbins, Sec. 

The Pocumtuck Basket-Makers 

work with raffia, grasses and corn husks. Their raflia 
is dyed with natural colors (of a great many shades), giv- 
ing a beautiful coloring to the baskets, which are well 
designed. "Among the designs which belong espe- 
cially to Deerfield are large baskets of simple shapes, 
with landscapes in broad, sketchy effects wrought in." 
The grays and greens of grasses are combined with 
raffia and corn husks in tray-shaped baskets. 
Mrs. Gertrude P. Ashley, Sec. 



INDUSTRIES 

Netting and Tufted Work 

Netted fringes, copied from old patterns, bearing 
such quaint names as "Moonshine Stitch" and "Mat- 
rimony Stitch," are made in linen and cotton; wide and 
tasselled for a bed-tester, or more delicate to edge a cur- 
tain. Bedspreads of material especially woven, like 
the old-time dimities, are outHned with tufted or knotted 
work in white cotton, copying old designs. These are 
also used for table and bureau covers. 

This work is done by Mrs. L. Emma Henry. 

Woven Fabrics 

There are several hand-looms in the village, on 
which rag rugs and other articles are woven. Mrs. 
Luanna Thorn weaves plain fabrics for bedspreads, 
curtains, and table covers. She also uses colored pat- 
terns in natural dyes. ^ 

Mrs. Jane E. Hawks weaves linen fabrics for table 
covers, bureau covers, and other small pieces. 

Fabrics, raffia, and hnen flosses are dyed by Mrs. 
Adella Andrews, who will take special orders. 

Metal Work 

Among the most beautiful of the annual exhibits is 
the work in silver and copper of two ladies who are a 
part of the summer colony, Mrs. Madehne Yale Wynne 
and Miss Putnam. Their work consists of bowls, 
spoons, necklaces, buckles, rings, and brooches, enam- 
eled and set with semi-precious stones. Their work 
may be seen by the summer tourist, only at this exhi- 
bition. Mrs. Wynne's winter address is 9 Ritchie Place, 



Id 



INDUSTRIES 

Chicago, Illinois, and Miss Putnam's, is 63 Marlboro 
Street, Boston. 

Photography 

It seems scarcely appropriate to include the charm- 
ing photographs of the Misses Allen among the Indus- 
tries, as their pictures represent so much more than 
mere manual skill, but since they choose to be so classi- 
iied, we can only emphasize their work as unusual. 
Their landscapes of the village and surrounding coun- 
try, their genre pictures of rural life, and their illustra- 
tions and portraits, arc widely known. 



DIRECTORY OF DEERFIELD INDUSTRIES 

Hours 9-12 A.M., 1-5 P.M. 

Secretary — Miss Florence E. Birks. 

Blue and White Needlework, 1 At the Sign of the Wheel, Cor. of 

Woven Fabrics, J Academy Lane. 

Deerfield Basket-Makers — Mrs. Stebbins, on the Albany Road. 

Rugs, 1 

Pocumtuck Basket-Makers, 

Dyed Raffia, 

Dyed Linen Flosses, !■ 

Dyed Fabrics, 

Woven Fabrics, 

Bayberry Candles, 

Photographs — The Misses Allen. Old gray house, vi'ith 

lean-to. (Card on the door.) 
Woven fabrics of linen — Mrs. J. E. Hawks, at the Sheldon 

Homestead. 
Netted Fringes, old-fashioned bed-spreads, etc. — Mrs. Henry, 

at the North End (west side). 



Mrs. Childs, next to the Post 
Office. 



103 



TREES OF THE STREET — WILD FLOWERS 
OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD — BIRDS 

Never is Deerfield Street more beautiful than when 
the turf that borders its foot-paths, — its Common, and 
many of its door-yards are purple with violets, bright- 
ened here and there by a gay dandelion, and the arth- 
ing trees above it are in their exquisite early green; 
unless it is in October, when the elms and maples are 
a glorious yellow, and the earth beneath, a carpet of 
gold: or perhaps, when their naked branches are 
covered with midwinter snows. 

In every season, it is the trees that make the Street 
beautiful. Many of them are very old ; and they have 
not been properly cared for. An expert bids us, if we 
wish to walk in safety under their branches, and to keep 
them as long as possible, not to neglect them. Is there 
not some Village Carnegie who will pay the thousand 
dollars needed for their preservation? 

The two oldest trees are those near the site of the 
Indian House, and in front of the studio on the Albany 
Road. The Indian House tree is more than two 
hundred years old and perhaps a hundred feet high, 
with a circumference, a foot above the ground, of 
twenty-three and a half feet. In the angle of one of 
the branches, a currant bush has been growing many 
years. Many of the elms are from a hundred and 
seventy-five to two hundred years old, and from eighty- 
104 



TREES OF THE STREET, ETC 

five to ninety-five feet high. The largest measured 
trunk was that beside the Willard House, which had 
a girth of twenty-seven feet. Another giant was that 
near the Champney House. Its noonday shadow 
stretched across a hundred and twenty feet of the turf, 
and after its fall, it became forty cords of wood. Alas! 
that it had to be thus measured. The house was after- 
wards moved back that it might hold the same relation 
to a younger elm. Most of the maples were planted in 
1809 at Dr. Willard's suggestion, and this is also the 
date of those elms on the Common that mark the 
line of the street. The beautiful horse-chestnut in 
front of the Wilson house was planted in 181 4, 
being brought from Boston by a newly married pair 
returning from their wedding journey. 

An interesting tree is just south of Mr. Cowles's house, 
the wings or buttresses of its trunk being remarkably 
large. 

The elm which is shown in the illustration is in the 
South Meadows, and is locally known as "The fish-fry 
tree," because the men at work in the meadows some- 
times caught their dinner in the river near by, and fried 
it in the shade of the big tree. It is on what is called, 
but no longer is, "The Island," because of a change in 
the course of the river. For more than a hundred years 
hay has been cut here by the same family without using 
any fertilizer, the deposit left by the river's overflow 
being sufficient. 

This yearly deposit, piling up around the trunk, has 
had the effect of dwarfing its height. 

In the Junes of a few years ago, before fire destroyed 
much of the mountain growth, and man destroyed 
105 



TREES OF THE STREET, ETC 

more that railway ties might be made and other fires built 
to burn brick withal, the slopes were pink with laurel and 
azalea. Now, although the procession of flowers is long 
and crowded, one must go farther from home to find them. 
One of Deerfield's flower lovers has prepared the 
following fist. The dates of flowering, of course, are 
approximate. Neither it, nor the bird hst which fol- 
lows, aims at completeness; both being taken from the 
note-books of amateurs. 

The earliest flower given is 
Feb. 27, 1898 — Skunk Cabbage 

"Thrice welcome, earliest flower of spring! 
Thy praise, but not thy name, I sing. 
Ungrateful men have christened thee 
With names unkind, unsavory. 

Because, when they, with wanton tread, 
Their crushing heel set on thy head, 
Thou dost resent so foul a wrong. 
They give thee names unfit for song. 

Thomas Hill. 
March and April 
Pussy WiHow Long-leaved Chickweed 

Alder Marsh Marigold 

Dandelion Wood Anemone 

Houstonia Rue Anemone 

Hepatica (three-lobed) Shepherd's-purse 

Hepatica (acute-lobed) Plantain-leaved Everlasting 

Coltsfoot Charlock 

Arbutus Small White Cress 

Bloodroot Dentaria 

Saxifrage Winter Cress 

Shadbush Yellow Adder's Tongue 

106 



TREES OF THE STREET, ETC 



Chickweed 
Field Chickweed 



Sweet White Violet 
Wood Betony 



April and May 



Round-leaved Yellow Violet 
Downy Yellow Violet 
Dog Violet 
Dutchman's-breeches 
Mitella 
Tiarella 
Trientalis 
Medeola 
Dwarf Ginseng 
Pale Corydalis 
Dwarf Dandelion 
Columbine 
Common Blue Violet 
Common Blue Violet (var. Cu 
cullata) 

May 

Moneywort 
Wild Calla 
Choke Cherry 
Wild Red Cherry 
Wild Black Cherry 
Brunella 
Harebell 
Dwarf Cornel 

Wild Sensitive Plant (or Cas- 
sia Marylandica) 
Two-leaved Solomon's Seal 
Solomon Zigzag 
Great Solomon's Seal 
False Hellebore 



Arrow-leaved Violet 

Bird-foot Violet 

Fringed Polygala 

Fringed Polygala (var. snow 

white) 
Wild Geranium 
Horseradish 
Marsh Crowfoot 
Bristly Crowfoot 
Wild Black Currant 
Early Hawkweed 
Tawny Hawkweed 
Early Meadow-Rue 



AND June 



Partridge Berry 
Linnaea (very rare) 
Chokeberry 
Goldthread 
Lupine 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit 
Green Dragon 
Flowering Dog\vood 
Round-leaved Cornel 
Pink Lady's Slipper 
Yellow Lady's Slipper 
Common Cinquefoil 
Silvery Cinquefoil 
Shrubby Cinquefoil 



107 



TREES OF THE STREET, ETC 



Tall Cinquefoil 

Norwegian Cinquefoil 

Mayweed 

Barberry 

Spice -bush 

Red Baneberry 

White Baneberry 

Blue Cohosh 

Wild Sarsaparilla 

Golden Ragwort 

Pyrola 

One-flowered Pyrola 

Purple Trillium 

Nodding Trillium 

Painted Trillium 

Bellwort 

Oakes's Bellwort 

Blue-eyed Grass 

Yellow Star Grass 

Bellflower 

Wild Rose 

Sweet Briar 

Elder 

Red-berried Elder 

Mountain Laurel 

Sheep Laurel 

Forget-me-not 

Water Pennywort 

Gill-over-the-Ground 

Clethra 

Carrion Flower 

Buttercup (tall) 

Buttercup (small-flowered) 

Buttercup (bulbous) 

Buttercup (septentrionalis) 



Wild Strawberry 

Blueberry 

Deerberry 

High Blueberry 

Huckleberry 

Dewberry 

High-bush Blackberry 

Running Blackebrry 

Flowering Raspberry 

Smooth-leaved Honeysuckle 

Bush Honeysuckle 

Fly Honeysuckle 

Pink Azalea 

Bastard Toad Flax 

Hobble Bush 

Dockmackie 

High Cranberry 

Crimson Clover 

White Clover 

Yellow Hop Clover 

Stone Clover 

Alsatian Clover 

Alfalfa Clover 

Running Bufi"aIo Clover 

Dogbane 

Sweet-flag 

Sweet-fern 

Blue Flag 

Sweet Cicely 

Common Purslane 

Clintonia 

Horse Gentian 

Northern Fox Grape 

Frost Grape 

Smilacina Stellata 



io8 



TREES OF THE STREET, ETC 



June 

Wintergreen 

Spotted Wintergreen 

Prince's Pine 

Long-leaved Stitchwort 

Showy Orchis 

Early Purple-fringed Orchis 

Small Purple-fringed Orchis 

Fringed Green Orchis 

Habenaria Hookeri 

Habenaria Orbiculata 

Pogonia 

Calopogon 

Arethusa 

Pitcher Plant 

Wild Red Raspberry 

Thimble-berry 

Bittersweet 

Honewort 

Ladies' Tresses 

Rattlesnake Plantain 

Black Snakeroot 

Bouncing Bet 

Yarrow 

Rattlesnake Weed 



AND July 

Knotweed 
Sundew 
Cleavers 
Pickerel Weed 
Arrow Head 
Button Bush 
Black Alder 
White Alder 
Tall Anemone 
Ox-eye Daisy 
Robin's Plantain 
Daisy Fleabane 
Common Fleabane 
White Geum 
Purple Geum 
Cow Wheat 
Hardback 
Meadow-sweet 
Butter and Eggs 
Sleepy Catchfly 
Blue Vervain 
White Vervain 
Meadow Parsnip 



July and August 



Tansy 

Wild Indigo 

Celandine 

Common Yellow Rattle 

Meadow-Rue 

Monkey Flower 

Purslane Speedwell 



Swamp Milkweed 
Purple Milkweed 
Four-leaved Milkweed 
Butterfly Weed 
One-flowered Cancer-root 
Horsemint 
Aaron's Rod 



109 



TREES OF THE STREET, ETC 



Common Speedwell 

Thyme-leaved Speedwell 

Indian Tobacco 

Common Sorrel 

Wood Sorrel 

Ladies' Sorrel 

Mallow (cheeses) 

Loosestrife 

Spiked Loosestrife 

Purple Loosestrife 

Cardinal Flower 

Indian Pipe 

False Beech Drops 

Lapseed 

Elecampane 

Spikenard 

False Spikenard 

Spiked Lobelia 

Simdrops 

Evening Primrose 

Evening Primrose (var. Cru- 

ciata) 
Turtle Head 
Common Milkweed 



Viper's Bugloss 

Canadian Burnet 

Downy Gerardia 

Yellow Gerardia 

Purple Gerardia 

Oak -leaved Gerardia 

Joe-Pye-Weed 

Wild Peanut 

White Lettuce 

Virginia Creeper 

Common Thistle 

Canada Thistle 

Pasture Thistle 

New Jersey Tea 

Garget 

Burdock 

Tall Dandelion 

Night-flowering Campion 

Mullein 

Milkwort 

Great Willow Herb 

Small Willow Herb 

Wild Sunflower 

Vetch 



July, August and September 

Burr Cucumber Wild Bean 

Dodder Hedge Bindweed 

Tick Trefoil Nightshade 

Black Mustard Catnip 

Wild Carrot Mountain Mint 

Field Parsnip Spearmint 

Cow Parsnip Peppermint 

Bee Balm Motherwort 



TREES OF THE STREET, ETC 



Wild Bergamot (several vari- 
eties) 
Brunella 
Cudw^eed 

Eupatorium (white snake-root) 
Clematis 
Rudbeckia 

Highland or Wood Lily 
Lowland or Meadow Lily 
Goldenrod (6 or 8 varieties) 
Fringed Gentian 
Closed Gentian 



Thoroughwort 

Pennyroyal 

Skullcap 

Life Everlasting 

White-topped Aster (Seriocar- 

pus) 
Steironema ciliatum 
Jewel-weed 
Pale Jewel-weed 
White Pond-lily 
Yellow Pond-lily 
Aster (many varieties) 



October and November 
Witch Hazel 



BIRDS NESTING IN OR NEAR THE VILLAGE 



American Goldfinch 
Baltimore Oriole 
Belted Kinghsher 
Blackbirds — crow 
cow 

Red-winged 
Bluebird 
Bluejay 
Bobolink 
Catbird 
Crow 

Carolina Dove 
Purple Finch 
Phebe 

Least Flycatcher 
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 
Humming-bird 



Spotted Sandpiper 
Scarlet Tanager 
Sparrows — chipping 

field 

song 

English 
Swallows — chimney 

barn 

cliff or eave 

bank 

white-bellied 
Thrushes — brown or thrasher 
song or wood 
Wilson's 
Vireo — red-eyed 

white-eyed 
Warblers — chestnut-sided 



III 



TREES OF THE STREET, ETC 

Indigo Bird Warblers — yellow 
Kingbird Maryland yellow- 

Meadow Lark throat 

White-breasted Nuthatch House Wren 

Oven bird Woodpeckers — golden wing 
Screech Owl downy 

Partridge hairy 

Redstart Whippoorwill 
Robin 



SOME BOOKS ABOUT DEERFIELD 

Many of which have been used in writing this book 

"The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion: or, A Faith- 
ful History of Remarkable Occurrences in the Cap- 
tivity and Deliverance of Mr. John Williams." First 
edition, 1706-7. 

"Narrative of the Captivity of Stephen Williams." From 
his journal. A reprint of the above, with other papers written 
by Stephen Williams, was published by the P.V.M.A., 18S9. 

"Conference Held at Deerfield, August, 1735, between 
Governor Belcher and the Caughnawaga Indians." 
Boston, 1735. 

"A Century Sermon, Feb. 29, 1804." Rev. John Taylor. 
Greenfield, 1804. 

In the Deerfield alcove of Memorial Hall are forty entries 
under Dr. Willard's name. Am.ong them are: 

"Results of Two Ecclesiastical Councils — His Confes- 
sion of Faith, etc." Greenfield, 1813. 

"Deerfield Collection of Sacred Music." 

"Simple Hymns for Children." 

"Primers." 

"Improved" and "Popular" Readers. 

Probably these are all compiled because of his interest in 
Deerfield children. 1827-1834. 

"A Description of Deerfield." Rodolphus Dickinson. 
Deerfield, 1817. 

"Antiquarian Researches." Epaphras Hoyt, 1824. 

"Brief Sketch of the First Settlement of Deerfield." 
Elihu Hoyt, Deerfield, 1833. 

113 



SOME BOOKS ABOUT DEERFIELD 

"Address Delivered at Bloody Brook, Sept. 20, 1835." 
Edward Everett. Boston, 1835. 

"A Biographical Memoir of the Rev. John Williams, with 
A Slight Sketch of Deerfield & Indian Wars, etc., 
WITH Stephen Williams's Journal." Greenfield, 1837. 

"Papers Concerning the Attack on Hatfield and Deer- 
field BY A Party OF Indians from Canada, Sept. 19, 1677." 
Franklin Benjamin Hough, editor. New York, 1859. 

"The Color Guard." James K. Hosmer, 1864. 

"History of the Fifty-second Regiment of Massachusetts 
Volunteers." John F. Moors, D.D. 

"George Fuller — His Life and Works." Boston, 1S64. 

"The Story of the Willard House." Catherine B. Yale. 
Boston, 1887. 

"A Life of Samuel Willard, D.D., A.A.S." Edited by his 
daughter (Mary Willard). Boston, 1892. 

"A History of Deerfield." 2 vols. George Sheldon. Deer- 
field, 1895. 

"History and Proceedings of the Pocumtuck Valley Me- 
morial Association." Vols. I-IV. (1870-1904.) Deer- 
field. 

"True Stories of New England Captives Carried to Can- 
ada During the Old French and Indian Wars." 
C. Alice Baker. Cambridge, 1897. 

"An Unredeemed Captive " (Eunice Williams). Clifton 
Johnson. Holyoke, 1897. 

"Concretions from the Champlain Clays of the Con- 
necticut Valley." J. M. Arms Sheldon. Boston, 1900. 

"Newly Exposed Geologic Features within the Old '8000- 
AcRE Grant.' " George Sheldon and J. M. Arms Sheldon. 
New York, 1903. 
Among the papers which have to do with Deerfield's history, 

written by Mr. Sheldon, are the following, mostly reprints from 

magazines: 

"The Traditionary Story of the Attack on Hadley and 

114 



SOME BOOKS ABOUT DEERFIELD 

THE Alleged Appearance of Gen. Goffe, the Regicide." 

1874. 
"Whalley and Goffe in New England." Introduction to 

Hunting's new edition of Judd's "History of Hadley." 

1905. 
"Forty Years of Frontier Life in the Pocumtuck Valley." 

1886. 
"Negro Slavery in Old Deerfield." 1893. 
"The Little Brown House on the Albany Road." 1898. 
"'Tis Sixty Years since, or the Passing of the Stall-Fed 

Ox and the Farm Boy." 1898 
"New Tracks in an Old Trail." 1899. 
"Flintlock or Matchlock in King Philip's War." 1899. 
"The Journal of Capt. Nathaniel D wight and its Lead- 
ings." 1903. 
"Heredity and Early Environment of John Williams, 

THE Redeemed Captive." Boston, 1905. 
"The Conference at Deerfield, Aug. 27-31, 1735, between 

Governor Belcher and Several Tribes of Western 

IND1.A.NS." Boston, 1906. 

FICTION 

"Romances under New England Roof-Trees." Mary 

Crawford. 
"Silence" in "Silence and other Stories." Mary E. Wil- 

kins. 
"The Beau's Comedy." (Scene laid near Deerfield). Beulah 

M. Dix and Carrie M. Harper. 

JUVENILE 

"Great Grandmother's Girls in New France." (Founded 

on the Eunice Williams stor}'). Elizabeth W. Champney. 
The "Boy Captive" Series. Mary P. Wells Smith. 
"The Boy Captive of Old Deerfield." 

115 



SOME BOOKS ABOUT DEERFIELD 

"The Boy Captive of Canada." (Founded on the Stephen 

Williams story.) 
"Boys of the Border." (In press.) (French and Indian Wars 

of 1746-1755). 

Chapters relating to Deerfield are in other stories written by 
Mrs. Smith. 



116 



SPeerfielt) Titahtinv «"» SDicftineon 




Suitable BOARDING-PLACES at nominal rates provided for out-of-town 
pupils. Tuition $30.cx3 per school year. Apply to 

B. Z. STEBBINS, Jr., 

Treas. Board uj Trustees, or 
FRANK L. BOYDEN, 
See "Schools, p. 85." J'liiuipal. 



CONNECTICUT VALLEY JTJT 
STREET RAILWAY ^ X X ^ 

Fifty miles of trackage in Franklin and Hampshire Counties 

PASSING THROUGH 

the city of Northampton and the towns and villages of Amherst, 

Hadley, Laurel Park, Hatfield, Whately, South Deerfield, Old 

Deerfield, Greenfield, Montague City, Turners Falls, Lake 

Pleasant, Montague and Millers Falls 

This railway traverses a section unsurpassed for its nat- 
ural beauties and points of historical interest, where the eye 
is delighted by rugged mountains, smiling vales, and occa- 
sional glimpses of the broad Connecticut and winding Deer- 
field, with modern cities and villages almost side by side 
with hamlets still preserving best types of early colonial 
architecture. 

On every hand monuments and markers may be seen, 
their legends telling the story of the early struggle of the 
white man to subdue the savage and the wilderness. 

To the student of history, the lover of the beautiful in 
nature or even the travel-worn tourist, a trip over the 
several divisions of this railway will pnjve a delight and of 
educational value. 

HALF-HOURLY AND HOURLY SERVICE 

Special cars with courteous attendants may be chartered 
to any part of the territory covered by our lines or to any 
point in the Connecticut Valley. 

OFFICERS : 
F. E. PIERCE, President, Greenfield, Mass. 
D. P. ABERCROMBIE, Jr., Treasurer, Greenfield, Mass. 
J. A. TAGGART, Superintendent, Greenfield, Mass. 
C. W. CLAPP, Asst. Superintendent and Eng., Northampton, Mass. 

Address all communications to the home office, 

GREENFIELD, MASS. 



The Devens 



GREENFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS 



U. J. REED, Proprietor 



Sold for the benefit of Hampton Institute, Virginia. 

"FROM A NEW ENGLAND WOMAN'S 

DIARY IN DIXIE IN 1865" 

By MARY AMES 

Edited by E, L. C. Price $1.00 



For Sale at 

JOHNSON'S BOOKSTORE 

MAIN STREET, - - - SPRINGFIELD, MASS. 



SOUTH DEERFIELD, MASS. 

THE HOTEL LATHROP 

In the Old Historical Town of Deerfield 

^ Newly Renovated 

^ Steam Heat 

^ Electric Lights; Fireplaces 

^ Best of Water 

^ Vegetables from our Own Gardens 

^ Good Fishing 

^ State Roads 

^ Nice Drives 

^ Grand Scenery 

^ Pure, Invigorating Air 

f Beautiful Hills 

SAVAGE & HODGKINS, Props. 



HAIR 
GOODS 

TURKISH and 
ELECTRO- 
THERMAL 
BATHS 



HAIR DRESSING 

SHAMPOOING 

MARCEL 

WAVING 

CHIROPODY 

AND 

MANICURING 

FACE and 
SCALP 

MASSAGE 



Imperial roilet Company 

22 Vernon St., Springfield, Mass. 

Telephone 592-12 0pp. Forbes and Wallace's Side Entrance 




IN SEALED ^\- n> y STRAIGHT 

IN btALtu . \y TO YOU 

PACKAGES ^ .„...^ UNTOUCHED 

amcon Every Piece" 

)nWkfFV^ CHOCOLATE 
jyWJMt/O BONBONS^:! 

. • . Avoid hargain counter heaps of candy . ' . 
Think of the dust, the handling, and the crowds 



A BOX OF LOWNEY'S 

is a thing of Freshness and Purity — a gift to enjoy 
DELICIOUS WHOLESOME ARTISTIC 



Frank A. Brandle 

COLLEGE PHARMACY 

While waiting for the trolley, invite your 
hiends to drink with you at our fountain. 
We serve the most delicious Ice Cream Soda. 
Agency Huyler's Candies. 

Opposite Academy of Music 

NORTHAMPTON, - - MASS. 



PLYMOUTH INN 

NORTHAMPTON. MASS. 

Centrally located, opposite Smith College. 

Modern in all its appointments. Rooms singly 

or en suite. Excellent cuisine. Rates reasonable. 

For further particulars apply to 

Mrs. CHARLOTTE M. MORGAN 

MANAGER 
ESTABLISHED 1797 

SOUVENIR BOOKS AND CARDS 

GUIDE BOOKS AND MAPS 
ALL THE LATEST NOVELS 

Bridgman & Lyman 

108 Main St., - - Northampton, Mass. 

FINE CANDY 

FRESH EVERY DAY 

DELICIOUS ICE CREAM 
at BECKMAN'S 

Cor. of Main and Masonic Sts. 
NORTHAMPTON, - - MASS. 



Pf^hen Touring 

do not forget to stop for LUNCH at 

BOYDEN'S 

177 Main Street 
NORTHAMPTON, - - MASS. 

COBURN & GRAVES 

DRUGGISTS 
Opp. Court House : : : NORTHAMPTON, MASS. 



Agents for Huyler's Candies, Baker's Chocolate, 

Lowney's Chocolates. Huyler's Chocolate used 

exclusively at our soda fountain. 

Ticket agency for Connecticut Valley Street Railway 



POCUMTUCK HOUSE 

DEERFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS 

J. H. BRIGGS, Proprietor 



Steam Heat : : Modem Improvements 

Rate $2.00 per day : Special Weekly Rate 



'The greatest treasure mortal times afford 
Is spotless reputation; that away 
Men are but gilded loam or painted clay." 

King Richard II. 



w 



E HAVE a true reputation for supplying the finest 
possible at moderate prices. ::::::::: 

Let us supply your drug needs. 



Our Ice Cream Soda, College Ices and Wallace's New York 
Chocolates are popular cJways and always appreciated, : : : 



WELLS & NASH, Pharmacists 
85 MAIN ST., - - GREENFIELD, MASS. 




The Deer field 
Society of Blue 
and White 
Needlework 

Permanent Exhibition 
at the Miller House 
— The Sign of the 
Wheel ^ '^ ^ «3* J- 

For price-lists and other particulars 
address 

Miss M. MILLER, 

DEERFIELD, MASS. 



DEERFIELD RUGS 

(OF RAGS) 

WASHABLE DURABLE 

Prices — from $3.00 to ^^6.00 according to size and 
coloring. Sizes — about jXiJ yds. — 1X2 yds. 
— Special Sizes to order. With Designs — i^5.oo 
to ;^i5.oo. Warp and filling of the higher priced 
are colored with natural dyes. ::::::: 

Address: Mrs. JANE E. HAWKS 



pocumtucfe :::::: 
: : : : Bashet-jVIakers 




Scrap-baskets (with landscape designs), Work- 

POCUriTUCKll baskets, Trays, Covered Baskets, Table Mats, 

etc., in original designs, with harmonious 

color schemes. The baskets are made of raffia or grass, 

decorated with corn husks in pink and purple, and are 

useful, ornamental, and durable. For prices address 

Q^tj9!» (ScrttuDe p. a0!)lep, ^ec«, DeetfielD 



NETTING 

Bedroom Furnishings in White Cotton 

Netted borders and fringes, one inch wide, 60 cents 
a yard. Heavy Coverlet borders with fancy stitches 
;^i.50 to $3.00 a yard. Netted Testers 27 inches 
wide, 1^3.00 a yard. 

Mrs. L. E. HENRY, - - Deerfield 



ANTIQUES 

(at tlje 'Sim of tl)e ILantern) 
OLD DEERFIELD, - - MASSACHUSETTS 



CHINA PEWTER 

BRASS 

MIRRORS FURNITURE LUSTRE WARE 



Blue and White Homespun and Woven BED-SPREADS 

Mrs. C. H. STEBBINS. 

"OLD ABE" 

THE WAR EAGLE OF WISCONSIN 

Bij C. ALICE BAKER 

Written for the "Children's Hour" at the Old South 
Meeting House, Boston. 

Printed for Deerfield Academy. Price 50 cts. 

Address: Miss MINNIE HAWKS 

DEERFIELD 

GEORGE A. SHELDON 

COAL^^^ WOOD 

52 MAIN STREET 

GREENFIELD. - - - MASSACHUSETTS 




PRICES OK SOME OF THE BASKETS 



OF PALM-LEAF — 

Square and round (fine) 2h to 6 inches across, 35 cts. to $2.00. 
For packing (coarser leaf) 6"x 8" to io"x 12", 75 cts. to $2.50. 
For drinking -glass, 60 cts. ; for gloves, $1.50; for flowers or knitting $1.50; for 
waste paper, $1.50; letter cases, $1.50 to $2.25. 

OF REED — White Stained or Dyed — 

For work, lunch, eggs, flowers, etc., 75 cts. to $3.00; for waste paper, $3.00 to $5.00. 

OF NATIVE WILLOW — 

Melon shaped, with and without covers, $1 .00 to $2.00; wood baskets $4.00 to $8.00 

OF LONG-LEAVED PINE NEEDLES — 60 cts. to $2.50. 

Address : S^DJ. C IB, Stcbbing. 



Photographs 



jTranceg anti fl^arp :ailen 



DEERFIELD 

CATALOGUES SENT ON REQUEST. 



novistaof 



i 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

PiHil 

014 077 399 2 



